This is how the Red Bull Ring changed after three dangerous accidents

After three red flags in a row due to serious accidents that could have ended in tragedy, many heated Safety Commissions at the Red Bull Ring and blunt declarations that it was the most unsafe track on the calendar, the track was finally renovated this winter with the introduction of a variant between the narrow turns 1 and 3 for the sake of the integrity of the MotoGP riders.

Those images of the first of two races in 2020 at the Austrian circuit where Maverick Viñales was reborn like Valentino Rossi are still on the retinas of fans. Zarco braked at almost 300 km/h -the Italian ended up calling him a “half-assassin”- and let Morbidelli into the lead. In a narrow area and with very close obstacles, their respective bikes ended up flying over the heads of the two official Yamaha riders who miraculously got a few meters ahead without touching them.

A week later, Maverick Viñales himself became the involuntary protagonist again when he ran out of brakes at the end of the straight and had to jump at more than 200 km/h in turn 3, setting the Yamaha on fire.

And last year, Dani Pedrosa, who returns to the competition as a wild card for KTM, fell at turn 3 his KTM stayed in the middle of the line and the Aprilia Lorenzo Savadori could not avoid it, he hit the KTM RC- 16 Spanish and caused a spectacular fire.

Absolutely nothing was done other than removing the safety barriers for the following appointments at that turn 3 (they strengthened the ‘airfence’ in that area by extending the fence outside of turn 3 to create a block for the whole turn and prevent bikes from crossing the track) and this winter they decided to change the layout in that area between turns 1 and 3 with a chicane to slow down.

In November 2021, Spielberg began remodeling work in collaboration with the FIM, Dorna and FIA, under the direction of circuit designer Hermann Tilke, a chicane for motorcycles, while Formula 1 continues to use the old layout at the Visit July 8-10. . There are now two 90 degree corners as part of a fast double apex chicane.

“Reducing the speed in that second corner is necessary in MotoGP on this section of the track. This is achieved with a compact right-left combination that avoids impact on the rest of the track. Planning is a real challenge due to the topography of terrain, above all,” explained Hermann Tilke to motogp.com.

But the voices against it have not been removed: “We will see how the safety issue is in that chicane, because it seems to be even more dangerous than before the modification”, said the champion Fabio Quartararo a week ago.