Rumor: F1 to add second Austrian GP to 2021 calendar (2nd Update)

This rumor is downgraded to ‘false’ today.

Dr Helmut Marko has reluctantly ruled out spicing up the second Austrian GP this year by reversing the layout of the Red Bull Ring.

As Formula 1 grapples with the ongoing covid pandemic, Red Bull stepped up by offering to host a second race at the circuit it owns in Styria.

To keep interest high between one race and the next, Red Bull’s F1 supremo Marko asked Liberty Media if the second race could feature ‘sprint qualifying’ – but the sport’s three-race trial for 2021 was already set.

Plan B was a reverse-direction race, which according to Auto Motor und Sport would have cost between 5 and 8 million euros in required safety modifications to turns 1 and 3.

“Together with the FIA, we created a plan of how you could drive the race in the other direction,” Dr Marko said.

“There were two tricky spots. In turn 3, you brake over a crest into nowhere.

“And in the starting corner, a car could fly into the spectators without special protection. The cars would have driven downhill towards the corner at high speed,” he explained.

Another problem is that the required circuit changes between the first and second race could not have been carried out in such a short amount of time.

(GMM) Formula 1 appears to be struggling to keep a full 23-race calendar for 2021 intact.

So far, several races have been postponed, cancelled or reshuffled, with the latest solution – following cancellation of races in Canada and Turkey – being a second race in Austria.

However, despite circuit owner Red Bull’s eagerness to organize a second race in Styria, Sky Deutschland reports that the covid crisis may intervene once again in 2021.

“The Austrian government has imposed a landing ban for aircraft from Great Britain from June 1,” the German broadcaster reports. “How long the ban will last cannot be forecast at this time.

“With so many Formula 1 teams headquartered in the UK, that could be a problem. But with a few weeks until the two races, the situation could change by then.”

(GMM) Formula 1 looks set to add a second race in Austria to its constantly-evolving 2021 calendar.

Baku promoter Arif Rahimov has ruled out suggestions that the race in Azerbaijan might swap places with Istanbul so that F1 can dodge the quarantine complications surrounding the Turkish GP.

“There were negotiations, but in our case, the date of the race weekend is fixed,” he said, explaining that the date was planned around a key UEFA Euro 2020 football game.

“We have no room for maneuver,” Rahimov insisted. “There is almost nothing we can do.”

It appears that F1’s ‘plan B’ is a second race at the Red Bull Ring – a similar situation to last year when the Austrian circuit also hosted two grands prix.

“What we reported on Wednesday morning should become official on Thursday,” the Austrian newspaper Osterreich reported.

“Also in this Formula 1 season, two races will take place at the Red Bull Ring.”

The original Austrian GP was scheduled for July 4 this year. It is reported that the Red Bull Ring will now host another race one week earlier.

Osterreich claims the French GP at Paul Ricard might as a result take place on June 20, one week earlier than scheduled, with the original Canada-Turkey race date of June 13 simply scratched from the calendar.