How Red Bull's 'rookie-friendly' home track helped save F1 2020

As the running gets underway at this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix, it's worth considering how important the name above the door at the Red Bull Ring has been to getting the 2020 Formula 1 season going.

By mid-April, the COVID-19 pandemic had forced the cancellation or postponement of 10 races - each loss a blow to anyone missing F1 action and the joyful break it offers from 'normal' life, which has of course been utterly disrupted for so many.

But, thanks to the comparatively low number of coronavirus cases in the country (it has had 705 deaths at the time of writing), Austria was able to exit its lockdown much earlier than some other European nations. Eventually, the Austrian GP was the next question mark on the calendar, but it has in fact retained its expected date slot.

What has changed is the addition of a second race at the Red Bull Ring - which has been assigned the Styrian Grand Prix title - with both events, and the following races in Hungary, Britain, Spain, Belgium and Italy, taking place behind closed doors.

The Red Bull Ring is a somewhat ideal setting for F1 to get used to the new ways of working - particularly regarding social and physical distancing. The circuit is located in Austria's picturesque Styrian state in the country's southeast and is well away from any major urban area - the nearest being Graz, over 40 miles away by car. There are seven nearby hotels dedicated to the Projekt Spielberg initiative around the track, which means F1's "biosphere" can be contained in a relatively small area.

"Quite early on into the shutdown, as circuits were falling by the wayside, there was a real sort of determination within Red Bull to host the race and then quite rapidly it became the opening race," Red Bull team principal Christian Horner tells Autosport.

"And as Red Bull owns the facility and have built and developed the facility, it was really [Red Bull boss] Dietrich Mateschitz's vision and commitment that has enabled it to happen. And it's effectively become a blueprint from which others could follow on from. So, it's exciting for us obviously to be having not just one but two races in Austria and to be kicking off the championship there."

When asked how the discussions with the Austrian government, F1 itself and the FIA had developed regarding the Red Bull Ring races, Horner explains that it was a joint effort.

"It was a matter of obviously working with the government, working with Formula 1, the governing body and getting all the confidence that it could be managed safely and securely," he says. "So Red Bull worked very hard on that over the last couple of months and has been well supported by the government and obviously, the promoter - Liberty - and the governing body."

The plans to keep F1's (reduced) paddock personnel safe during the upcoming campaign will be regularly reviewed, so expect more tweaks to follow this weekend's event. For example, if it is decided that the altered grid procedure still involves too many people gathering in one place even with strict social distancing, the cars will drive to the race start straight from their garages.

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But, once the lights go out at the start of Sunday's race, some normality at least will return. A good thing, then that the Red Bull Ring usually provides plenty of sporting talking points. Think Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton clashing on the last lap in 2016, Valtteri Bottas' lightning getaway a year later, reliability woe striking down Mercedes in 2018, and Max Verstappen's clash with Charles Leclerc late-on last season.

"It's a really good feeling if you get that perfect lap out. And to get that perfect lap out at Red Bull Ring is probably even more difficult because you have in reality [just] seven corners that you have to hit perfectly" Christian Klien

"It can produce good races, the weather can be variable there as well," says Horner. "So, the chances of both races being dry is probably optimistic. It's got the ability to produce a thriller."

One driver who knows the short, 2.68-mile circuit very well is Austrian driver Christian Klien, who raced for Red Bull during its first two seasons in F1 after it bought the Jaguar squad ahead of the 2005 campaign (although he shared his seat that year with fellow Red Bull junior Vitantonio Liuzzi). Although the track was absent from the F1 calendar during his time competing in the championship, Klien raced at the track when it was known as the A1-Ring during his junior career in Formula BMW and F3.

But, since it was revamped by his former employer in the 2000s, he also has extensive experience racing on the circuit in sportscars and as a driver coach. The refurbished Red Bull Ring retained the simple nature of the A1-Ring, which in turn was built on top of the old Osterreichring, which means it is a course where it's somewhat easier for less talented drivers to stay close to the established stars.

"Basically it's just they're going in too deep into the corners," Klien tells Autosport regarding the easiest way for drivers to lose time at the Red Bull Ring. "So you have to maximise your exits. After the corners, there is always a long straight. You have to hit your breaking point perfectly - get that apex perfectly - and then make sure you have a really good exit.

"Most of the time, people just want too much - going too hot into the corners and just fuck up the exit, basically, and have a bad one on the next straight. And that's the same in Formula 1. You have to hit that apex in Turn 1, Turn 2, Turn 3 just perfectly otherwise you lose a lot of time all the way up the long straights."

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Triple F1 world champion Jackie Stewart cites the 1973 Italian GP as the race of his life, in part because the simple layout at Monza meant it was harder to gain time on rivals. Klien agrees that it is a similar situation at the Red Bull Ring.

"It's a really good feeling if you get that perfect lap out," he says. "And to get that perfect lap out at Red Bull Ring is probably even more difficult because you have in reality [just] seven corners that you have to hit perfectly.

"And if you make one mistake, obviously you lose more time than for example at Spa, where you have 16 or 18 corners. [There] you have still 17 corners to make up that mistake you did. And you don't have that at the Red Bull Ring."

That comfort will come as no surprise to F1's only rookie driver in 2020 given he has raced at the track in the junior categories, but Nicholas Latifi knows he will benefit from the season now starting at the Red Bull Ring.

"This is a much easier environment [to make] my debut in because it's track I know," he explains.

Latifi's Williams team-mate George Russell, who made his own F1 debut in Australia last year, adds: "If you could choose a place to have your debut, it would probably be here - a track we all know well, the shortest one of the year. And especially compared to Melbourne, which is probably the hardest place for any rookie to make their debut."

Latifi is enjoying the odd benefit of the vastly different nature of this weekend's race, with few media allowed to attend the event on-site, along with the absence of team partner guests and spectators. He insists his excitement levels are the same as when he travelled to Australia for the aborted Melbourne race back in March, but recognises there was "a bigger hype and build up" in a traditional F1 curtain raiser.

F1's return is certainly going to feel different. But now the on-track action has finally arrived, with the stage of the Red Bull Ring ready to host the opening acts of what is already a unique chapter in F1's history.