History corner: Austria is set to host its 38th F1 race

Following the Canadian Grand Prix, the F1 field is back in Europe, with the Red Bull Ring playing host to the first location of another back-to-back races.

Austria joined the Formula 1 calendar in 1964, though a rudimentary circuit at Zeltweg Airport was unpopular, and when the championship returned in 1970 it did so at a new venue nearby.

The verdant hills above the charming village of Spielberg were turned into a high-speed undulating race track, and the Österreichring hosted Formula 1 through 1987.

Formula 1 had outgrown the circuit but it returned in shortened form in 1997, at the rebranded A1-Ring, before falling by the wayside after 2003. The circuit fell into a state of disrepair, and was unused for several years, until it was acquired by Red Bull and its co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz.

The circuit was renovated, with new facilities constructed, acting as the showpiece for the local Styrian region and its products. Formula 1 returned to Austria, and the Red Bull Ring, in 2014, where it has since remained.

The Red Bull Ring is among the shortest circuits on the calendar, with just 10 corners across its 4.3km layout, and with lap times of around 65 seconds it is the venue with the shortest lap time. That makes Saturday’s qualifying session among the most hotly contested of the campaign, with just a couple of tenths of a second often separating several rows of the grid in the midfield.

But overtaking is plentiful in the race owing to several lengthy straights and corners that allow for switchbacks and side-by-side battles, particularly across the opening half of the lap.