General
Marko: "When we got the green light for GP, we started negotiating right away"
- GPblog.com
Already at an early stage Helmut Marko announced that the Red Bull Ring is open for a Grand Prix. In the phase in which mainly races were postponed or cancelled, Red Bull Racing's advisor was already thinking of restarting F1. Now we can be sure that next Sunday we will be racing in Austria. Marko told Sport1 how it all started.
"In the beginning, it was mainly an idea. Once the first shock of the pandemic subsided, we realized we couldn't live under the harsh conditions. In May, we knew it was time to start negotiating. When Dietrich Mateschitz gave the green light for the circuit, we started negotiating directly with Liberty Media."
A concept with all measures
In the end, Marko had to come up with a well thought-out concept, so that all measures could be taken for a safe event. "We had to present the Austrian government with a concept that met all the security measures and was therefore accepted. An important point was that there should be no spectators". In the end, the races are held without an audience.
Also in F1 the staff on the circuit had to be reduced. "Formula 1 also had to cut the number of staff by about half and of course it had to be ensured that enough corona tests could be held", says Marko. In the end they managed to comply with all the measures and so there will be a Grand Prix this weekend and next weekend at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg.