Holiday Grand Prix is an established term from the Formula 1 dictionary of the 1970s. The time when racing driver Helmut Marko made his debut at the Austrian Grand Prix. At that time, many pilots lived directly above the race track built into the slope, where a party mile is now set up – including the opportunity to view the slope from even higher up during a bungee jump.
Marko, now 78 years old and motorsport consultant for the Red Bull Group, owns several hotels in Graz, which is just over an hour’s drive away. In order to get to the Red Bull Ring for the second Grand Prix within a week, the doctor of law did not use the long road tunnels, but instead steered his car over the Gaberl, a 1547 meter high pass. From there, the mountain and valley railways are easy to see, they look like a sleeping snake in the model railroad landscape. All in all very harmonious, at least until this weekend.
Since then, the lush green has gotten a ton of noticeable spots, preferably in orange (for the Dutch fans of Dutch World Cup leader Max Verstappen) or white (for motorhomes with Dutch license plates). “The whole basin is orange, Austria has never experienced such enthusiasm,” says Marko.
The ninth round of the World Championship is the first Formula 1 race in a year and a half that again has unlimited spectators. The grandstands offer space for 105,000 people, and over 60,000 tickets have been sold in advance since it became known that a mask no longer has to be worn in Austria. That is more than four times as much as at the Grand Prix of Styria a week ago.
Lando Norris sensationally made it to second place in the qualification
The questions about the price of beer, where to get schnitzel and how to get back to the campsite are answered by the Kronen Newspaper, the largest tabloid in the republic, carefully translated and printed in Dutch. The survival guide culminates in How did the Race win?, the question of the winner. Verstappen has the best chances in the Red Bull, who from the third pole position in a row is also aiming for the winning hat trick in the race. In the front row next to him there is even a completely orange car, Lando Norris’ McLaren sensationally made it to second place in qualifying, while Lewis Hamilton only finished fourth. Norris, 21, says with a grin that he just imagined the bouncing orange crowds cheering him on.
Verstappen’s show was stolen only once briefly before qualifying: When Mercedes announced that it would extend its contract with Lewis Hamilton for another two years. Mercedes currently has a weaker engine, less perfect aerodynamics and capricious tire usage in all areas behind the challenger Red Bull. The hope of Mercedes is their own home game in two weeks at Silverstone.
Remains in the Formula 1 paddock: World Champion Lewis Hamilton has extended his contract with Mercedes.
(Photo: James Gasperotti / dpa)
140,000 fans are expected there in the middle of the virus variant area. Hamilton, whose criticism (“I’m shocked”) slowed the start of the season in Melbourne last spring, is a rather silent warning this time, after all, it’s about the much-needed home advantage. But he says: “I’m more on the cautious side and would build it up slowly instead of going full throttle again.” But there will be no stopping, like now in Styria, where the streams of traffic and spectators are separated according to colors in a pretty exemplary way. Only fans with a QR code on the bracelet are allowed in, the controls are strict, even if the Small newspaper sneers at the 3G principle: Washed, blown, combed …
The inside of the Formula 1 circus is controlled much more strictly than outside: where there is otherwise a Styrian-green carpet in front of the Red Bull Ring, on which the drivers parade in front of the fans, there is a massive container – the mobile test laboratory that travels around the world with the racing circuit and has made 26 races possible in the last 52 weeks. The masks are also not allowed to fall in the paddock, the automobile association Fia follows stricter rules, especially since motorsport is dominated by the British and the term “Delta” should continue to stand for a lap time calculation in the cockpit, but not for an aggressive virus variant.
In the middle of the racetrack, where a bull with golden horns sits enthroned, a duo called The Stohlis polka, waltz and yodel under the motto “make sad hearts happy”. And again and again selfies are taken with guests from the lowlands. Folk music, folk hiking day, international understanding? The slogan comes from Austria’s Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who was a podium guest the previous week: “We have to get back to normal, big events are part of it.”