Red Bull Ring showed up Silverstone's flaws

Held just two weeks apart, the Austrian and British Grands Prix have so many similarities, yet so many fundamental differences. Both events were staged on classic circuits, albeit 'upgraded' and remodelled to bring them up to 21st-century standards.

Both are privately funded - in the former's case by drinks billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz, who bought the A1-Ring (formerly the Osterreichring) in the late noughties before naming it (what else?) the Red Bull Ring - while Silverstone is promoted by a commercial offshoot of the British Racing Drivers' Club, which owns the facility.

Both are situated in rural areas, well over an hour's drive from their respective country's capital cities. Local accommodation is therefore at a premium, forcing fans to pitch tents in the surrounding fields. Thus after-dark partying to boom-boom music is the nocturnal norm for most.

Both were subject to various enquiries before their respective planning approvals for upgrades were granted. Indeed, both suffer from some hostile neighbours, and both have restrictions on spectator numbers.

This year both even had their very own statues, in the case of Austria an enormous bronze bull sited on a hillock and in Silverstone's paddock the tasteless and cornily named 1carus statue - a sort of flying man propelled by exhaust-manifolded arms about which few complimentary words were heard save for self-serving tweets - (dis)graced the area in front of F1 tsar Bernie Ecclestone's office/hospitality suite.

There is, though, a humorous postscript to Red Bull's work of art: 'tis said the one thing Mateschitz craved more than a grand prix on his circuit was a 'home' victory by a Red Bull Racing driver. History relates that it was not (yet) to be, with Nico Rosberg and Mercedes taking an immaculately judged win. To rub in the defeat, silver-clad fans overnight scaled the bull and attached a Mercedes badge to its forehead.

The original airfield-based Zeltweg was short-lived © LAT

Talk about starry bulls-eyes...

That said, at least Silverstone feted a home victor in Lewis Hamilton, whose Mercedes was engineered down the A43, while Williams and Red Bull Racing - whose cars carried the other two podium finishers across the line - are built within a 50-mile radius. The best-placed Red Bull driver in Austria was Daniel Ricciardo in eighth...

Zeltweg first hosted Formula 1 in 1963, with, intriguingly, Silverstone being credited by locals as providing the inspiration for conversion of its runways to provide a (temporary) circuit. Despite it becoming apparent during that first event that the abrasive circuit was not only too bumpy and narrow for the cars of the day, the race was granted championship status for the following year, but removed from the calendar thereafter on safety grounds.

Thus the local motor club constructed a flowing, helter-skelter circuit in the hills directly above the eponymous hamlet. It superbly addressed the issue of poor spectator viewing on the flat, featureless airfield below, and they were rewarded with a return of F1 in 1970. For the next 17 years the surrounding hills were alive with the sound of F1 music, but in 1987 the chorus stopped after the race needed to be restarted twice.

The track was deemed too dangerous by the FIA due to its narrow pit straight, (ultra) high-speed corners, lack of protection from trees, and embankments. Increasing speeds also presented a growing problem: in that final race pole starter Nelson Piquet averaged almost 160mph in his Williams.

The layout was emasculated - sound familiar, Silverstone fans? - and in 1997 the grand prix returned for eight years before bans on tobacco advertising sounded the death knell. Indeed, the circuit was in dire danger of disappearing when Mateschitz reached into his (deep) pockets and bought not only the A1-Ring, but most of the surrounding area, too.

Silverstone, too, has endured its fair share of upheaval, at various times alternating with Aintree and Brands Hatch for the honour of hosting the world's oldest championship race. It almost lost the rights at the turn of the decade after an optimistic entrepreneur attempted to move the grand prix up Donington Park way, but, after fairly fraught negotiations, Silverstone Circuits secured the race until 2026 - albeit at horrendous cost.

Costs and budgets are, of course, of little consequence to the Red Bull Ring, for in 2013 the main company sold in excess of five billion cans at a gross profit margin of 70 per cent, most of which accrues to the bottom line of Red Bull GmbH.

Then, Red Bull even derives an indirect discount, for under F1's current structure its two race teams combined receive around 13 per cent of F1's annual global turnover, estimated at $1.6bn for 2014. Thus of the hosting fee - said to amount to $20m - Red Bull receives a return of $2.6m.

Silverstone's Wing has drawbacks © LAT

However, it was in the execution where the events were so, so different, with Austria drawing plaudits for its brand new media centre that offers journalists superb views of virtually the entire circuit. Silverstone's 'Wing' complex requires the media to slip across to a restaurant to see the track.

Where the Red Bull Ring offered parking within 100 metres of the media centre entrance - and regular luxury shuttles for the sick, lame or lazy - the British circuit required all F1 personnel to catch municipal buses. On Friday evening at peak hour some bright spark decided to remove a bus, resulting in much argy-bargy just as one had pressing commitments to head for dinner after a long day in the office...

Despite hundreds acres of hard surfaces laid at horrendous cost since that disastrous Easter 2000 weekend on which thousands of spectators were left stranded in deep bog - plus subsequent equally unacceptable experiences - the media/team/VIP car parks were filled beyond capacity, with the overflow directed onto grassy areas and long, wet slogs to the bus stop. If it had teemed properly...

Dubbed the Silverstone Limo Service by a sarcastic team PR, the need to run Green Line buses at all is symptomatic of the circuit's entire approach. "Silverstone is the only place in F1 that finds a problem for every solution..." is how someone described the overall situation.

However, it was after the event that the biggest difference between the two venues became apparent: Despite Silverstone over the years having regularly come in for enormous criticism over regional traffic handling - resulting in a massive upgrade of nearby roads at massive cost - this journalist sat in traffic for almost two hours before reaching the motorway 15 kilometres away.

Various tweets attested to this totally unacceptable situation, which blights the experiences of fans and F1 personnel alike.

Austria? Straight out and no hold-ups on similarly rural roads for an hour, and then only at a motorway tollgate. Both circuits attracted almost the same number of fans - Silverstone's encouraging crowd of 110,000 punters shaded Austria by around 10 per cent - but the difference was that in Austria campers, whose crawling vans, trailers and caravans cause the greatest congestion, are banned from hitting the roads until 1900 local time.

It seems Silverstone, one of the oldest circuit on the trail, could learn a thing or two from a most welcome returnee...