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The Red Bull ring at Speilberg Austria has been hosting the Austrian Grand Prix from 1963. Initially hosted at an airfield circuit before it was replaced by another circuit citing dangers involved, called as the Osterreichring circuit. Osterreichring literally translates as 'Austrian circuit' was renamed as the A1 ring in 1995 and 1996 after a sponsor. Then renamed as the Red Bull ring from 2011 season. Despite the regular refurbishments and modifications made, the circuit has always been fronting with start lane crashes. These start lane crash issues date back to 1950s when the initial Zeltweg airfield circuit was removed from the FIA calendar. Be it the deer crash or the Barrichello-Schumacher, Speilberg always churns a lot of memorable incidents.
Here are top 5 crashes at Austrian Grand Prix
#5 Hamilton vs Rosberg
It seemed like a perfect scripted weekend for the Mercedes during the 2016 Austrian Grand Prix having both their machines at the front row of the grid for the race. However, post-race they sure wouldn't have been very happy for what happened at the very last lap of the race.
The battle for a podium finish was between the Mercedes duo Rosberg and Hamilton with Verstappen throughout the race followed by Raikkonen. Rosberg was having a great race with proper strategical pit stops and even took the lead passing Verstappen on lap 61. Hamilton also went past Verstappen tailing his teammate Rosberg. It seemed like a perfect finish for Mercedes but the unexpected was yet to come!
Lewis Hamilton's first win at Speilberg was welcomed by a 'boo' from the crowd because of the final lap mess up. Although that helped him pass his teammate for the top spot, it became the talking point of the race for a wrong reason. At the last lap of the race, the British driver tried to overtake Rosberg at turn 2 from the outside, turning late inside the corner collided and damaged the front wing of Rosberg. The crash pushed Hamilton off the track, but he eventually rejoined track and took the lead at turn 3 while Rosberg was pushed below Verstappen and Raikkonen to 4th place finish.
#4 Derek Daly's brakes
The 1980 Austrian Grand Prix though was won by a French driver, Jabouille, the race is remembered for the Irish driver, Derek Daly. Back in 1980, the same Speilberg circuit was way different with no barriers around but just farm fields all around track apart from the stands. As the Osterreichring circuit is located at the countryside close to hills full of ups and downs over the course filled with fields and farms. It's already a luck if the drivers leaving the track don't invest on a cow or a deer.
Derek Daly who was on his Tyrell-Ford racing for the second last spot with went off the track losing control of his car due to failed brakes. Daly went off the track at the Flatschach straight course when he tried to negotiate being overtaken by Keke Rosberg. While trying to defend his spot, brakes failed and Daly went off the track for a long stretch into the fields until the car halted over long bushes and rocks.
#3 Schumacher's start crash
Austrian Grand Prix 2000 started off with a string of incidents right at the usual narrow straight lane of the A1 ring. Michael Schumacher started off the race qualifying at 4th place ended his race even before it started. Ricardo Zonta of Bar-Honda who started off the race at 6th collided at the rear of Schumacher's car which put the Ferrari into a 180-degree spin leading to a head-on collision with Trulli. Thereby ending the race of both. Schumacher was lucky to get away from any injury despite the dangerous crash.
"Zonta has over-estimated his ability" proclaimed Schumacher post his first lap retirement. Though Schumacher retained his lead in the championship despite the early retirement he was obviously disappointed with the crash. Zonta apologized for that incident and also defended himself saying that Schumacher had braked harder and earlier than him at the turn which led to the crash. It was surprising that despite these crashes at the start, the race wasn't stopped bringing in the red flag, rather it was continued with the deployment of Safety car.
#2 Mclaren kills a deer
The 1987 Austrian Grand Prix was plagued with accidents throughout. The crashes started off even before the race started. During the practice sessions, McLaren's Stefan Johansson hit a deer with his McLaren MP4/3 at around 140 mph, killing it instantly. The deer which seems to have wandered onto the circuit while crossing the circuit disturbed by the noise of cars was struck by the Swedish to death.
This race was started 3 times after being stopped twice because of the critical crashes. The first start was stopped after the Tyrells Palmer and Streiff collided with the Ligier's Ghinzani. The second start was even more drastic as the Osterreichring's narrow lane compacted with more than of the grid involved in the ensuing pile-up caused because of the Cheever-Patrese collision. The third start was delayed by two hours as most of the teams had to work on the repaired cars or look for a spare one.
#1 Alonso vs Raikkonen
One of the scariest crash in Formula One history could be this crash involving the former world champions Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso during the 2015 Austrian Grand Prix. The Finn lost the control of his car after the turn 2 in the opening lap at Speilberg, swerved into Alonso, whose Mclaren ended up on top of his Ferrari. Raikkonen's wheelspin caused an uncontrolled left steer crashing Alonso's Mclaren, lifting it up over the Ferrari dragging it till the barrier halt.
The crash was so severe that it was lucky to see both the drivers unscathed. McLaren's onboard camera got damaged during the crash and so wasn't available for replays. Raikkonen's onboard cam and a long shot camera weren't sufficient to see the scenes behind the crash. Post race Alonso felt that the use of prime tires instead of supersofts could have been the reason for Raikkonen to lose the control. Stewards declared that no driver was at fault after investigating the clash.
