Which current team has the worst finish rate in Austria? How many Austrian drivers have conquered their home event? And what happened here for the last time in 1976? Here’s the Red Bull Ring in numbers!
3
Despite 33 Grands Prix being held at the Spielberg track, no driver has had more than three wins here. This can perhaps be explained by the fact that F1 has visited the track in three different eras: from 1970 to 1987, from 1997 to 2003 and most recently from 2014 to the present day. Alain Prost has the most victories of any driver at the track – a figure which Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen could equal in 2021.
4
Other than DNFs, no driver has had more repeat results at this track than David Coulthard, who finished as runner-up here four times. The Scotsman finished second in the Austrian Grand Prix four times in a row between 1997 and 2000 before finally winning the event in 2001. Alain Prost, John Watson, Rubens Barrichello and Sergio Perez are the only drivers to have finished in the same position more than twice at the Austrian circuit. Prost won here three times, Watson recorded three ninth place finishes and Barrichello stood on the final step of the podium three times between 2000 and 2003. Perez will equal Coulthard’s record if he finishes sixth at either of 2021’s races.
8
No driver has had more retirements here than Riccardo Patrese. The Italian driver retired from the Austrian Grand Prix eight times during his career, completing the race only twice from his ten appearances. He never scored a point here, either. He finished in a lowly fourteenth in 1980 when driving for Arrows, before coming home tenth in 1984. Even with his tenth place finish, Patrese didn’t actually make the end of the race. He finished three laps down after running out of fuel.
10
Pole position has been decided by less than a tenth of a second ten times at this circuit, including three times in the last four seasons. The smallest ever pole margin at this track came last season, when Valtteri Bottas secured pole for the Austrian Grand Prix by just 0.012 seconds.
13
It took thirteen years from his first attempt for Niki Lauda to finally score his first home Grand Prix win. He remains the only Austrian driver to have won his home event, having done so in 1983.
17
No driver has taken a podium finish at the Austrian Grand Prix from further back than seventeenth on the grid. That happened in the first race at this track, in 1970, when Rolf Stommelen finished third after starting seventeenth. It was the only podium finish of the German driver’s career.
44%
The Red Bull junior team has the worst finish rate in Austria of any current team, at just 44%. The 2019 Austrian Grand Prix was the first time that the team w both cars cross the finish line at the venue. Both cars also finished the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix.
58
The shortest Austrian Grand Prix lasted for just under 58 minutes. That was the 1975 race at this track, in which Vittorio Brambilla took his only Formula 1 victory.
Having completed 29 laps in treacherous conditions, Brambilla infamously crashed his car after taking the chequered flag. His victory is the second furthest back (eighth on the grid) the winner has started the Austrian Grand Prix. It was bettered only by Alan Jones in 1977, who won from fourteenth.
73
McLaren have had the most Grands Prix entries at this track, with 73. The team have had their cars start a race here 72 times. Swedish driver Jo Bonnier’s failure to start due to a fuel leak in 1971 the only time McLaren have recorded a DNS at the circuit.
Ferrari are the only other team to have been present on the grid at the first race in Spielberg, though in total they’ve had ten less entries than McLaren. McLaren have entered more than two cars in this race on five occasions, while Ferrari’s only turn entering three cars into the Austrian Grand Prix was in 1970.
The Italian team also entered just one car in 1973 and 1982, and missed the race entirely in 1976 in protest.
120
Lewis Hamilton has scored the most points of any driver at the Red Bull Ring, with 120. Despite not racing in the past four seasons, Nico Rosberg is still fourth on the list. David Coulthard, is the only driver who remains in the top ten points-scorers at this track despite not racing here since it was called the Red Bull Ring (and since F1 inflated the points-scoring system!)
1976
The 1976 Austrian Grand Prix marks the last time a female driver finished a Formula 1 event. Lella Lombardi entered her seventeenth and final race here with RAM Racing. After qualifying 24th, she completed the race four laps down on the leader in twelfth place.