The Race has obtained exclusive satellite imagery that shows the new alterations made to the Red Bull Ring for MotoGP.
The Austrian Grand Prix venue’s Turn 2 kink is finally being extensively remodelled following the high-speed 2020 collision between Franco Morbidelli and Johann Zarco in which both Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales were extremely fortunate not to have been hit by flying bikes.
The track images, provided by Planet Labs PBC and taken last week, show a previously-unseen view of the new chicane that replaces Turn 2 for bikes.
Introduced not just to slow riders on the approach to that corner but also to change the line of fire should another contact occur, it looks like a job well done.
Even better, the wide and sweeping chicane is faster than the version originally proposed by the Austrian circuit last year in graphics, and should ensure that the track is still challenging and stimulating for riders.
“It looks good!” Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro told The Race. “The problem is that there is not a lot of space so you can’t make it faster, but it doesn’t matter – the point is that you just reduce the speed when you arrive to the tricky point. It’s not easy to see with all the snow, but it doesn’t look bad.”
That sentiment was echoed by Morbidelli, someone with first-hand experience of how things can go wrong there.
He said that the modifications are what he expected to see from his conversations with MotoGP safety officer Franco Uncini.
“We discussed this with Franco, and it looks nice,” said the Yamaha rider.
“They tried to make this bit [the entry] as safe as possible, because maybe if you crash here you still get in the middle of the way, but I think it is a nice countermeasure.”
But one rider who was not as impressed by the modification was 2020 world champion Joan Mir.
Normally a firm advocate for safety, he conceded to The Race that he much preferred the old layout – but understood the need for the change.
“It’s what we discussed, in the end,” he admitted. “I prefer the track like normal, but this I think will be safer in case something happens at the corner.
“There will still be crashes at Turn 3, that is true, but there will be less speed. I prefer it like normal, but this is what we will have!”
The Red Bull Ring has also managed to add in the chicane while retaining the original line should it be needed – presumably meaning that the Austrian Formula 1 round also held at the track can stick to the original configuration, in a system similar to the slightly different layouts also used in the past by MotoGP and F1 at Barcelona.
Another element of the snow-capped circuit that remains very obvious in the image provided by Planet Labs PBC, though, is the track’s long term ambition to solve the issues – with the original 3.692-mile Osterreichring layout still preserved and very obviously apparent in the shot.
Continuing straight ahead at what is now Turn 1 and then over and behind the hill that now sits alongside the new chicane before rejoining with a long and blisteringly fast turn Turn 2, the land the previous track sits on is believed to still be owned by circuit owner (and Red Bull co-owner) Dietrich Mateschitz, whose longer-term ambitions are believed to include a return to that configuration.
