The Austrian motor sporting fraternity has a long history of being one of the most enthusiastic to be found in any country of Europe, but Austria is a small country, and mere enthusiasm alone cannot support a Formula One World Championship round. Journalist and historian Doug Nye looks back at the history of the Austrian race and all the venues where the race has taken place throughout the years

The Austrian motor sporting fraternity has a long history of being one of the most enthusiastic to be found in any country of Europe, but Austria is a small country, and mere enthusiasm alone cannot support a Formula One World Championship round. Whenever the Austrian Grand Prix has been in the Formula One calendar it has seemed more like a visitor, resting there en passant, than as a hard-core permanent fixture...and this has been poor repayment really for the enthusiasm and genuine dedication of its promoters and organisers...and for many an adequate tribute to their superb motor racing venue.

Anyone who has followed Formula One racing at its highest level from its inception in 1948-50 to the present day will certainly feel that for all the good features that have been added, much of the old charm - and particularly of the old aesthetic appeal... the mind picture...has been lost to modern developments.

In particular, the aesthetic appearance of the vast majority of modern Autodrome-style circuits is pathetically arid compared with what has gone before. When the cars themselves tend to perform in an unspectacularly discreet manner - apart from their sheer acceleration, straightline speed and deceleration - one really needs proximity to provide some measure of visual thrill.

The sight of cars in action against a background of mere asphalt, distant and broad grass verge, catch-trap gravel or a sea of painted Armco barrier is a poor substitute for the hedges, ditches, grassy banks, trees and roadside buildings of times gone by. The trouble was, of course, that such stage sets tended to kill and maim the luckless driver...

And yet there are circuits still included in the Formula One calendar today which provide a throwback measure of aesthetic appeal. The Monte Carlo street circuit, of course, is one. Spa-Francorchamps is the finest example. Imola is another circuit whose layout in its greater part was dictated by geography rather than by the whim of man. And then we come to what used to be the mighty Osterreichring, in the beautiful, voluptuously rolling foothills of Austria's Styrian mountains...

In fact the Austrian organisers set their particular motor racing ball rolling - where Formula One era international race meetings are concerned - back in 1958 when the concrete runways of the military airfield at Zeltweg, north of Graz and Klagenfurt and off the B17 Judenburg-Zeltweg road, were employed for a major sports car race meeting.

Austrian aerodromes such as Aspern, just outside Vienna, had been used before for such events, the Swiss Ferrari privateer Willy-Peter Daetwyler winning there in 1955, but at Zeltweg in '58 the Porsche factory supported the event, and Wolfgang 'Taffy' von Trips won in a RSK from French ace Jean Behra - the Jean Alesi of his day - and Edgar Barth.

It all went so well, amongst the straw-bale chicanes and oil drum markers on the pan-flat aerodrome, that funding was found to run a Formula 2 single-seater race on the same course the following year. It was won by British hill-climb specialist-cum-aspiring circuit racer Tony Marsh in a Cooper, from David Piper's Lotus and a similarly private Porsche.

More funding was found from BP Oil for the 1960 Zeltweg meeting, which was run again to 1 ½-litre F2 regulations and which this time attracted Stirling Moss in his Rob Walker-liveried Porsche 718 - which won - from the silver-liveried works cars of Hans Herrmann and Barth.

The Austrian Grand Prix title had been adopted and in 1961 when run for 1½-litre Formula One cars we saw Team Lotus number one Innes Ireland victorious at Zeltweg in his 4-cylinder Climax-engined Type 21 car, beating reigning World Champion Jack Brabham's Cooper and the bearded Swede Jo Bonnier's Porsche. The race that year was run over 255kms, some 160-miles, and it was regarded by the teams as a decent money earner between the German and Italian World Championship rounds - although the temporary circuit was nothing special, and the concrete surface with its many expansion joints was growing rough by the year...

In 1963 another non-Championship Formula One Austrian GP was run - falling this time to Jack Brabham in his faithful year-old prototype Brabham-Climax BT3, who headed Tony Settember's Scirocco-BRM and Count Carel Godin de Beaufort's basically 1960 flat-4 Porsche 718 at the finish...providing some idea of the entry/punishment meted out by the rough course...

The Austrian club then achieved FIA Sanction for their 1964 event to qualify as a World Championship round, but this first premier-league Austrian GP became something of a blighted disaster. The concrete runways and hard-standings of the Zeltweg were badly frost-heaved and crumbling by that time, and suspension failures afflicted almost every competing team, and sidelined all the World Championship star drivers. Lorenzo Bandini was left to score his solitary Championship status GP victory in the hybrid V6 Ferrari, from a lack-lustre Richie Ginther in the second-string BRM.

Poor Phil Hill, driving for Cooper, had wrecked his assigned race car in practice, and during the race using the team's 'old nail' spare chassis he ran wide in the only left-hand corner on the L-shaped course and rolled over a straw bale barrier. Leaking fuel and the bales both ignited, and despite all Phil's best efforts to save his car it was burned to a crisp - although it would be resurrected subsequently to race in the Tasman series down-under. Phil's name was mud with John Cooper, and Zeltweg's name was mud with the Formula One fraternity. There would be no more major-league racing on the tired old concrete Flugplatz.

Still the Austrian club laid bigger plans. If the makeshift aerodrome was no longer acceptable they would raise the backing to build a tailor-made new circuit to rival the Nurburgring and Spa. Barely a couple of miles up the road from the Zeltweg plain the ground began to rise into the Styrian mountains, and there they acquired land and laid out a magnificent new course, allowing its shape to be dictated by the natural geography of the site, rather than imposing a man-made circuit shape upon the natural lie of the land.

The result was a triumph - the Osterreichring had been born, 3.69 miles - 5.94kms - of swooping, plunging, fast, demanding tailor-made road racing heaven...

It was inaugurated in 1969 with the 1,000-Kilometres sports car race which saw the new Porsche 917 make its mark, and then in 1970 it hosted the revived Austrian Grand Prix as a full-status Formula One World Championship round.

Back in 1964 at Zeltweg the fast-rising Austrian star Jochen Rindt had made his Formula One debut in Rob Walker's Brabham. Now in 1970 he was leading Team Lotus and the Drivers' World Championship both as he came to his native qualifying round, only to lose an engine as Ferrari's latest 312B flat-12 beauties proved utterly dominant - finishing 1-2 with Jacky Ickx and Clay Regazzoni driving, while team-mate Ignazio Giunti had also shone in the third flat-12. Two weeks later Jochen lost his life during practice at Monza...all Austria was plunged into mourning.

The Austrian GP became established at Osterreichring in 1971, when Swiss star Jo Siffert put in the perfect performance in one of the most beautiful Formula One cars of all time - the Yardley-liveried BRM P160. He qualified on pole, set fastest race lap and led all the way to victory. A deflating tyre allowed Emerson Fittipaldi's Lotus 72 to close in second place near the finish. Both Tyrrells failed - but Jackie Stewart became that year's World Champion on the grass verge...

It was 'Emmo's year in 1972 - his JPS Lotus 72 winning handsomely after Jackie Stewart's stubby new Tyrrell 005 had led for 24 of the 54 laps. The twin McLaren M19Cs of Denny Hulme and Peter Revson followed the black Lotus home 2-3.

Black reigned yet again in 1973 with Ronnie Peterson victorious in another Lotus 72. His team-mate Fittipaldi had been waved ahead to lead on lap 16 but a fuel line failed in the Brazilian's car five laps from the end, leaving SuperSwede unchallenged. Stewart was second for Tyrrell, having been challenged hard by Carlos Pace's Surtees TS14 until its fuel pressure faltered, and the second Brazilian finished third.

It was an Argentine's turn to shine on the superb circuit in 1974 - Carlos Reutemann victorious for Brabham in the BT44, from Denny Hulme's McLaren M23 and James Hunt's Hesketh 308. The pyramid-section Brabhams had dominated all race, Reutemann's team-mate Pace losing a hard-won second place on lap 41 of the 54, while Niki Lauda - on his home soil, of course - was forced out by engine failure. Third, fourth and fifth-place finishers - Hunt, John Watson (Brabham BT44) and Clay Regazzoni (Ferrari 312B3) each had to stop to change blistered or deflating tyres.

The heavens opened in Austria '75, triggering March's unique World Championship-qualifying GP victory for 'The Monza Gorilla' - Vittorio Brambilla. Lauda led for Ferrari using a set-up committed to a drying track. Instead the rain intensified. James Hunt took the lead on lap 15 with Brambilla's March in his spray-plume, and four laps later Vittorio breast-stroked his way ahead as the Hesketh's Cosworth engine lapsed onto 7 cylinders. The race was abandoned after just 29 of the scheduled 54 laps, and Brambilla was so elated he spun and smashed his March's nose on the victory lap!

But it had been a meeting overshadowed by tragedy, for Mark Donohue had crashed his Penske due to tyre failure in the very fast right-hander topping the hill after the pits, and he had died in hospital later that day.

The track was modified thereafter, but the 1976 race then saw Ferrari cancel its entries after Lauda's fiery crash at the Nurburgring, and with neither their reigning World Champion nor the Maranello marque attending, the normally ever-faithful Austrian spectators stayed away, affecting the gate-takings badly.

Still a fine race ensued - Ronnie Peterson's March, Watson's Penske, Scheckter's 6-wheeled Tyrrell, Nilsson's Lotus 77 all battling for supremacy until the Tyrrell crashed heavily, the March's brakes faded, Nilsson slowed due to fluctuating oil pressure and 'Wattie' had to shave his beard off after joining the ranks of Grand Prix winners. For the Penske team it was a genuine triumph after the tragedy of Mark's death the previous year. Jacques Laffite's ear-splitting V12 Ligier-Matra screamed through into 2nd place, displacing Nilsson near the end.

By 1977 the Austrian GP at the Osterreichring seemed as set as any World Championship round could be, given that the sponsors didn't like the event (no decent hotels or night life within a million miles) and finances for the event were always knife-edge. The weather was often lousy too...

This was the year of Andretti and the first Lotus 'wing-car', the Type 78. IN a wet start he led for 10 laps until his Cosworth development engine blew, team-mate Nilsson changed onto slicks when 2nd, rocketed back up to third behind Hunt's leading McLaren, then his engine blew. Hunt led unchallenged, until his engine blew. Which left a maiden Formula One race victory to future World Champion Alan Jones, driving his Shadow DN8...

Now the Austrian GP really was beginning to look like the choice event to produce the unexpected winner... Bandini in '64, then Watson, now Jones. But in 1978 it produced more torrential rain...

So much so that after 7 laps the red flag went out. Ronnie Peterson spun his Lotus 79 on lap 8, only to find that officially the race had already been stopped, sop he was able to take the restart when the rain abated. He had 'won' part one, from Patrick Depailler's Tyrrell 008 and 'Wattie's Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT46.

Now the second part ran the remaining 47 laps, everyone changed to slick tyres as the track dried, and Ronnie won handsomely for Lotus from Depailler and Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari 312T3. Mario Andretti had tried to win the race on the opening lap of part one, and he had crashed comprehensively on the right-hander leading onto the back stretch...leaving team chief Colin Chapman unimpressed.

At last a straightforward Austrian GP was run in 1979 - Jonesie's second win there, this time in the Williams FW07 from team-mate Regazzoni in Frank and Patrick's second car. It was the Didcot team's third consecutive GP Victory that season. Villeneuve led two laps for Ferrari, the Renault turbos both ran 2nd before striking trouble, Arnoux stopping for fuel only four laps from the end - falling back to finish 6th.

Jones led again in 1980, but this race saw Renault's revenge - Jabouille beating Jones and Reutemann of Williams. One year later - in 1981 - Jabouille was Ligier-Matra team-manager. During tyre testing he had ear-marked an ideal tyre for their car at the Osterreichring, and Jacques Laffite exploited it brilliantly to beat Arnoux's Renault turbo in the closing stages. Villeneuve had led for Ferrari until brake trouble intervened, Prost took over with Arnoux for Renault until 'The Professor' crashed due to suspension failure - leaving Arnoux, battling against understeer, to be caught and dispossessed by Laffite. La France supreme...

Austria offered a power circuit - ideal for the turbos - and the 1982 race saw Gordon Murray introduced his pit-stop refuel and tyre-change strategy to get the Brabham-BMWs through the race in the least possible time. The cars still broke - Prost found himself leading in the last running turbo (Renault of course) until 5 laps from the end when its injection failed, leaving Elio de Angelis (Lotus 91) just to hold off Keke Rosberg (Williams FW08) by five one-hundredths of a second to secure the 150th Cosworth V8 GP victory.

Ferrari filled the front row in 1983 - Patrick Tambay led in the Ferrari 126C3 until baulked by Jarier's Ligier, which allowed Arnoux and Piquet by in 126C3 and Brabham-BMW BT52B respectively. Arnoux encountered gearbox trouble, Prost caught and passed in the victorious Renault RE40 with just six laps to run . Piquet lost revs and was almost caught on the line by Eddie Cheever in the second Renault RE40.

Still the Austrian GP clung on to its place in the calendar - still it was disliked by the powerful sponsors. Niki Lauda had never won on his home soil - now - back in harness for McLaren-TAG he put that right: winning from Piquet's Brabham and Alboreto's Ferrari 126C4 in 1984.

The Osterreichring with its narrow barrier-confined start straight was beginning to look its age. The 1985 Grand Prix was marred by a four-car collision on the first start, which saw spare cars deployed for the restart. Once Honda engine bottom-end troubles struck Williams the race became a Prost McLaren-TAG demonstration after Lauda's engine failed.

In 1986 Benetton-BMW shone, Teo Fabi's B186 on pole and Berger's then setting fastest race lap at 148.604mph average! But both cars failed to finish, and McLaren-TAG proved faster and more reliable than Williams-Honda - Prost winning from the twin Ferrari F1/86s of Alboreto and Johansson.

Two starts and two startline collisions marked the 1987 Austrian GP - Nelson Piquet led laps 1-20 in his Williams-Honda FW11B, Mansell laps 21 to the finish (52) in his sister car - Fabi and Boutsen 3-3 in the Benetton-Ford turbos. But the startline pile-ups added to the momentum of anti-Osterreichring feeling, and the Austrian round of the Formula One World Championship - having fought off cancellation for so long - was dropped from the calendar for 1988...

In the modern racing world safety had always been a major concern on a natural circuit with so many extremely high-speed corners, most of them flanked by nothing more sped-reducing than vast expanses of mountain meadow grass.

But in the mid-1990s real investment and real effort was made to return the circuit to prominence, and it was completely remodelled in the modern idiom as the 'A1-Ring'. Where in its original form the track had soared uphill from the start, over a brow and into the very fast right-hand curve on which poor Donohue had crashed fatally, the sponsor-named Hella Licht chicane had been introduced for 1976. The A1-Ring modification deleted this section, turning sharp right some 200 metres before the site of the old chicane, then climbing across the former infield to rejoin the old back leg in a very tight first-gear right-hander which has seen considerable drama in every race held since the venue's re-adoption.

A very fast run to the site of the old course's former Boschkurve - which had been a wide open 180-degree downhill right-hander of daunting speed - was now converted into a tighter, slower, safer turn, following by two quite quick and testing left-handers. A crest leading into the final right-hander - named since 1971 the Jochen Rindt Kurve - had been smoothed, and the curve itself led virtually 180 degrees again slightly downhill into the widened start-and-finish straight, and back past the pits.

The A1-Ring is not the place on which legends could be written like its predecessor - the mighty Osterreichring - but it is still a special place, still cradled in the geography of that foothills site, and still possessed of infinitely greater aesthetic appeal than the vast majority of Formula One's other venues around the world.