New chicane added to Red Bull Ring but F1 will bypass it

2022 F1 season

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The Red Bull Ring will have a different look when Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 3 visit the circuit in July.

A new chicane has been constructed on the climb from turn one to turn two. It has been added for safety reason due to high-speed crashes involving motorbike racers in the Moto GP series.

F1 and its support categories do not current plan to use the chicane. The original circuit route has been kept, running through the new right and left handers.

The construction of the chicane has required the repositioning of barriers around the circuit and the addition of new gravel traps. The surface has also been relaid at this point on the track.

Red Bull, which owns the Red Bull and AlphaTauri F1 teams, purchased the circuit after it lost its previous F1 race contract in 2003. It has invested heavily in renovating the facility formerly known as the A1-Ring, and brought F1 racing back to the track in 2014.

It held two F1 races in each of the Covid-affected 2020 and 2021 seasons, but is due to host a single grand prix this year on July 8th-10th.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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37 comments on “New chicane added to Red Bull Ring but F1 will bypass it”

  1. Paul Richard vibes…

    1. +1, especially for the added local “h”. 👍

    2. Talking of Paul Ricard, why can’t F1 bypass the chicane there?

      1. @bullfrog in theory, they could but there’s a huge grandstand at the Mistral chicane now and grandstand = money

  2. Remind me of when they put that chicane in on the old Osterreichring layout in the 80s’. I know it’s only for bikes, and not cars, but it still looks awful. I don’t think it’ll do much for the racing in MotoGP either.

    1. Did you even read the article? It’s not there to aid to the racing spectacle, it’s there to prevent the riders from arriving at T3 at 340kmh. They want to avoid a repeat of this

      1. @xenn1 some of the onboards and slow-mos from that crash were crazy. If some of the bikes had arrived split seconds earlier / later, it would have been much worse.

      2. Valentino Rossi was very lucky to escape alive from those two flying bikes.

  3. I don’t like the angle of that barrier something tells me that’s an accident waiting to happen unless they do what they did at Magny Cours Where you had the run-off area for the motorbikes but they put a barrier to prevent single seaters going into the motorbike run-off areas at a dangerous angle

    1. Was thinking the same thing. A bit of lap 1 wheal banging could easily put a car into that barrier with a very sudden stop, where otherwise would be a trip over the grass and a glance off the armco.

    2. It’s difficult to get a track 100% safe for single seaters and motorbikes at the same time. Had they not put in that chicane, MotoGP would’ve likely never returned to the RB Ring, which would’ve been a disaster, because the event attracts a much bigger crowd than F1 does.
      Safety for motorbikes is more important, because they don’t have any kind of protection in case of a crash (besides the airbag), while the drivers in their cars are much better protected.
      There will always be safety concerns whenever F1 and MotoGP race at the same circuit. I remember after Luis Salom’s fatal accident at Barcelona in Moto2, there was a lot of criticism about the run-off in the penultimate corner. Many claimed that had there been gravel run-off (he slid from the asphalt right into the tyre barriers), it would’ve likely slowed down the bike enough and Salom could’ve survived the crash.

      1. Yeah you’re right but I think the Magny Cours style barrier that @f199player mentioned would be a no brainer in this situation and they might in fact have something like in mind.

  4. The angle on that barrier reminds me of that crash Kimi had at Silvertone some years ago… if someone’s pushed there and he ends up crashing against that tyre wall, he’ll rebound back on track, on the path of other drivers…

    1. @fer-no65 Kimi didn’t hit a tyre wall, but Armco, though, but I see what you mean.

      1. @jerejj nitpicking as always :P

        1. @fer-no65 The first time anyone has used that term on me. Oh well, I don’t mind.

      2. More likely to bounce back onto the track from tyres anyway, so original poster’s point still stands.
        I agree with others above that a Magny Cours style barrier should definitely be used.

  5. Think it’s more dangerous for the cars now, with all those barriers with a bad angle.
    A wheel tangle in the uphill and you’re in the wall HARD, while in the past you would be sliding along the barrier.

  6. Hopefully the chicane makes it safer for the MotoGP bikes and we never ever have to witness such a horrible crash again. To this day I don’t know how no rider got killed that day. They were truly blessed.
    The only thing I don’t like about it is its ‘Paul Ricard-shape’. It looks rather ugly. But hey, if it helps with the safety for the bikes, I’m all for it.

  7. MotoGP are the worst. Would they please stop fu*ing with car tracks and go play Russian roulette on their own playgrounds?

    1. @proesterchen tracks need to make money to survive and one F1 race a year isn’t going to do it

      1. This isn’t about Formula 1, though. This is about circuits taking note of the fact that there are significantly different safety requirements for car and for bike racing, and that combining both in a single track leads to sometimes dangerous, often frustrating solutions that lead to a compromised experience for either, and often both.

      2. F1 race is quite capable of putting the circuit at a loss if anything.

    2. @proesterchen MotoGP rules. It’s great racing! tho, tbh, they used to share a lot less venues with F1, but I think it wasn’t sustainable. Tracks need the money, they have to justify their inversion. If it’s safe for F1, it’ll be close for MotoGP too… few tweaks and you get both series.

      1. I would like to support MotoGP, but in the time I’ve been following the sport, they have not shown any serious intent to grapple with the inherent dangers of people racing bikes on tracks, and I’m quite frankly fed up with a series (or group of series) that ultimately accepts that there will be deaths among its competitors on an ongoing basis.

      2. I believe the tweaks being done to Spa is an attempt to get motogp to return.

  8. I was worried by the title until I got to the bypass part.
    Good news both in this regard & for bike safety.

  9. Some thoughts:
    – The blue wall for incoming cars/bikes has a TERRIBLE angle – it’s basically perpendicular. That’s super dangerous.
    – They ruined the most picturesque section of the track. I hope it doesn’t look awful in camera
    – Beyond the 3rd corner, A1-Ring is the most painfully bland track on the calendar. I hope they would to sth to that.

    1. To your third point – just no. Calling it bland when we have Baku, Abu Dhabi and Paul Ricard on the calendar is especially amusing

      You are definitely right about the previous two pointsagree with the other two though. I wonder whether a sharper chicane without the left part could have been feasible.

  10. Maybe this is a backup plan for RB, if the car isn’t as competitive when the series gets there.
    The RBR cars can take the straight, while all the rest must use the chicane.
    It’s called a motor race!
    :)

    1. Let’s hope it’s not to confusing for Lewis. He really seems to struggle at demanding tracks.

      1. Lewis, Lewis, Lewis. It’s _always_ Lewis with you, no matter what the subject is. The post doesn’t mention him, I don’t mention him, no comment mentions him, but you come straight in there with your “Lewis”. I mean, seriously, give yourself a break, mate, stop obsessing about him.

        1. Why, its fun. The hamfans always jumping on every occasion and some to attack max or Redbull or horner or..
          If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.
          BTW, Lewis seems to have serious mental issues. Maybe he better stop now.

      2. You’re such an i diot

        1. Sounds like a kind of apple fan. Are you?

  11. If only they reactivated the Westschleife we wouldn’t even have to look at this miscreation, let alone discuss its safety implication on Formula.

    1. Damn those annoying neighbours! Not only are they responsible for the Westschleife never being reconnected to the existing track, they even tried everything to stop any kind of racing at the circuit, because it was ‘far too loud’ and ‘bad for their health’.
      I remember how there was a lot of criticism, because of all the talks of environmental sustainability. The government also had a very negative attitude towards F1 coming back to Austria.

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