Mateschitz Pushing to Resurrect A1-Ring

Mateschitz had hoped to build a racing and aviation theme park at the former home of the Austrian Grand Prix but his plans were scuppered following environmental objections. With that block only coming after demolition work on the circuit had begun, it has meant the circuit is now in a state of shambles.

But despite the fact that several months ago it looked like the track would be left to ruin, Autosport-Atlas understands that Mateschitz is now making a fresh attempt to convince Austrian politicians that they should give the green light to his plans.

"It is completely open how things will go on," said Mateschitz. "We are looking for a fresh start through politics, but it is too early to judge the promise for success.

"What would not make sense is to rebuild a track which only would be good for club racing, DTM or motorcycle Grands Prix, which is also tough to get. We have seen what kind of problems you can get with the day to day running of a race track so it would be wrong to do that again.

"Maintenance of a Formula One worthy track costs some two to three million Euro a year. And it would be hard to find enough dates for full utilization since winter lasts five months. So I guess the investment would only make sense when we do the full scale plan."