Formula One [Austria 1982 Onboard Lap]: Niki Lauda

[Kamk4ze]

not flatout and not a complete lap

[jb355]

Thats a real circuit that is!

Bring it back PLEASE

[Brownyy123]

What a pitty that they don´t drive there. Great Track! Not a stupid created Track like Bahrain, China etc.

[SullaLooming]

You couldn't have saved the old track for F1. Tyre advances and aero advances would make it a very very fast circuit. To build the run offs you would have to cut away tens of thousands of tons of earth and trees and added much much more to other areas. In some places you had drops on the other side of barriers and in others you just had huge earth banks aka hills. Shame though was a great track to watch F1 at.

[gnubboleso]

fast corners, no overtakes, when F1 was made for sport and not for stupids tvshow.

[hottotrot75]

theres another great track they stuffed up.....

[sookster54]

The Cosworth V8's were god awful slow engines compared to the turbos in 1982, but the funny thing is Rosberg won the championship driving one.

[McLarenMercedes]

@sookster54

Rosberg was smart. A lot smarter than his racing record will tell. His win in Dallas in 1984 was a great feat. Especially since the track was deteriorating and the Texas sun fried all the drivers.

I have seen a few videos of Rosberg's racecraft, and his driving up the field in Zolder in 1984 from 20'th to 2nd was legendary. Sadly his car retired on the very last lap.

Rosberg did outrace guys like Gilles Villenueve, Pironi, Prost and Piquet.

[danhardwick77]

Awesome cicuit, one of the best. With today's technology and general know-how, someone could have easily saved the old Osterreichring and just developed the run-off areas and widened it in places to comply with today's standards. But as per usual money and ownership issues interfered and we got the scaled down A1-Ring, and now no race at all because Ecclestone would rather have another sandfest in the Middle East instead on some featureless track.

[chipattack911]

well said. especially the sand-fest part.

[tifosaurus]

Why did they ban A1 Ring from the racing calendar? It was a nice circuit which always gave an interesting race...

[krs561]

Hi tifosaurus- You are right it is a great course. Bernie kept, and keeps shopping the series to the highest bidder. Lately the winners have been Singapore, and Valencia. The big losers have been Indy, Austria, and Montreal-which may be back in 2010. A1 Ring is a great track- uphill braking zones- where else do you see that?!

[BuckToothPhooey]

Commentator James Hunt, is in my opinion the greatest driver ever with his Marlboro sponsored McLaren M23. RIP James....you were one of the greatest to come out of England

[1ihatepokemon1]

I got to agree with you, James was a damn good griver and a really cool guy too but... I don't think he's the best driver ever. He does come close, though. I still think Senna's the greatest driver ever, and I think I'm not the only one who does.

[schrutzen]

f1 cars are scary fast nowadays this one looks like a stroll in the park compared to now awesome

[lordsquirrelshit]

They're not that much faster but you also have to remember that safety back in Lauda's day wasn't anything like it is today. There was usually at least one death per season back then.

[PiNInFarina18]

There is no way Lauda is going flat out here.

[pulkerwhast]

Why don't you show racing or qualifying laps?

[92NB]

Dude, they have cameras on those cars which are as big as your computer, so it would be impossible to drive fast whit one on your car.

[spooky78]

What was the top speed of these cars..??

[MintAs94]

I think about 190mph. I'm not sure.

[NewYankee01]

i remember the races of both brands hatch and oster... bh has very sharp corners and a few downhill but this fucker. This has fast downwards corners. Terrifying. must have felt as if the cars were going to lift up and flip over at times. That still happens today with the drivers saying eau rouge can be taken flat out and they feel scared (rightly so).

[Mr911cerrera]

You got to love thoes turbo cars.RIP James

[JIM2u007]

Vintage Gold!!

So so smooth and fast, Miracle survivor and triple WC, Niki was amazing. Fabulous, accurate commentary by a rival, WC James Hunt. (very much missed)

Thanks LeighF1!

[brattsveen]

I have to say, I love James Hunt! He was grand!

[NewYankee01]

I wonder what hunt's thought were when he commented Lauda. Did he feel to race or was he glad he retired. I don't know much about hunt apart from a few reference on telly, mags and wikipedia.

[NolanBowlin]

I thought the narrator was ok, due to the fact it's James Hunt. Never was one of my personal favorite circuits but it was a great venue while it lasted.

[MagicAyrtonforever]

That "Narrator" as you call him is one James Hunt!! You know the British f1 Ex world Champion :D

[oberon79]

you know what I hate? narrators...

[tiadaid]

Look at the barrier at the Boschkurve...damn close!

[pelicanstuff]

I don't think there was too much space to move it back either, that was probably one of the most pressing reasons in terms of safety for changing the track.

Have to say I thought the changed A1 version was actually OK for a modern track to be honest, always threw up a good race and the turn 6/7 combo was quite nice.

[jmnw00626]

Thanks for the excellent F1 clips LeighF1!!!

[jeepee27]

You guys are right, they ruined almost all of the great track of the past, for the sake of safety. Osterreichring, Kyalamy, Hockhenheim, Zandvoort. The only good track left is SPA, but it wasn't even on the 2006 calendar....good going Bernie!!!!

[hihynynhhf]

don't forget suzuka

[Metallicakicksbutt]

Most driver's who raced on the original Ostereichring loved it.The 1997 version was stripped of all its funny and interesting parts.Few drivers like it and it is not on the 2007 calendar i believe.

[LeighF1]

Nah, its not been on the calender since 2003. Unlikely we will see much of the Osterriechring or the newer A1 Ring since most of it has been ruined due to abandonment on construction.

[KaragouniS13]

actually only the pitlane was demolished. The rest track is still exist

[kralle7611]

its sad that this classic f1 track has been destroyed. the new "ring" sucked a lot and ecclestone said there will never be a race in austria again. there were plans to use it as a test drive for the motor industry, but that was given up as well.

[vanityflare]

I thought the new one had alot of character.. ehh maybe thats just me..

[kralle7611]

for me it was the other way round. i felt that the old track had more character. when they destroyed the first turn (that went behind the hill) it was like taking out eau rouge out of spa. then they added some (probably rather difficult) kind of 'infield'. but if you liked it thats totally ok.

but as it seems there wont be any racing or other motorsport related activity there no more anyway. (sadly)

greetz.

[vanityflare]

Thanks Bernie... ahem

[Rosssmith21]

I agree. Ive just seen the De Angelis-Rosberg finish and there were overtaking spots and fast corners that rewarded a driver with balls as well as skills. I suppose the only problem is safety, but even then this track has large run-offs in places (?) so it couldve been updated. But Bernie wants rich princes to have races..

[ian7796]

To the contrary, rather. The Ost-ring was just high-speed corners, no room for modern cars to over-take at all, as impressive as they would be to watch the cars through. The A1 ring, although keeping a very similar midfield area, had some four or five sharp corners, albeit at the sacrifice of the classic high-speed corners.

[ian7796]

Sure, the old track had more character and was wonderful but the A1 ring was still a fair cry better than tracks like Shanghai and what-not.

[Rosssmith21]

I didnt like the old A1 ring, it just never excited me. I think Alain Prost once said they could make the Osterreichring safer by including run off areas, but leave the track as it is (although the bosch kurve, as great as it was would have to go)

[ian7796]

That is true, Prost did indeed say that, but the hills and middle section of the A1 Ring were still unique and the over-taking spots very much firmly there and over-taking firmly possible, where-as modern F1 cars would have no chances to over-take at all bar perhaps the first corner chicane.

[shazmeister2005]

even the new track was far better than the awful creations they are using now i.e. china, new hokenheim, bahrain etc. yeah i have to agree with everyone here the old A1 ring would unfortunatly be no good now theres no tight corners for overtaking. the new A1 ring was really just a compacted version of the old one most of the corners are in the same place (apart from the first one) the straights are just shorter and the corners are tighter if u get what i mean its just like a shrunken version.

[kralle7611]

talking about safety: *sarcastic lol*

as we probably all heard, ecclestone wants a city race in paris next year (and even more city courses like monte carlo) and also a night race is set for singapore. so 'safety first' doesnt seem THAT much of a concern in the end. but after all, F1 is mostly about loads of money and people want their gladiators, so whatever.... grande spectacolo!

[NewYankee01]

erm no. i think that the fia and everyone else would have thought of the feasibility of a night race. look at le mans series. they already do night races and them cars are fast as fuck. almost the same. so theres difficulty in introducing night races into a very revised race league (f1) IE how will the aero affext the cars, etc. if ecclestones plan were to not think of the drivers safety i would think a lot of the drivers and thoughtful spectators would be disheartened after a while.

[MortuxLT]

The night race is actually in a timing that would be more comfortable for Europe... Of what I have heard...