Formula 1: Why were this year’s Austria races swapped?

Last year, the Austrian Grand Prix took place ahead of the Styrian Grand Prix. Why did this change in the 2021 Formula 1 season?

For the second consecutive Formula 1 season, the Red Bull Ring hosted two races as opposed to its usual one, with this year’s two races having been contested on the last two Sundays.

Last year, the 10-turn, 2.683-mile (4.318-kilometer) road course in Spielberg, Styria, Austria hosted the season opener and the season’s second race in July after multiple races were either postponed or canceled as a result of COVID-19-related restrictions.

The Red Bull Ring was added to the schedule in 1970 and hosted the Austrian Grand Prix every year through 1987. It returned to the schedule for seven years from 1997 to 2003, and it returned again in 2014 and has been on the schedule ever since.

Over the last two years, the race not classified as the Austrian Grand Prix has been called the Styrian Grand Prix.

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Last year, the Austrian Grand Prix came first. Valtteri Bottas opened up the season with a win before Lewis Hamilton won the Styrian Grand Prix. But this year, the Styrian Grand Prix came first, with Max Verstappen leading every lap and winning that race before doing the same in the Austrian Grand Prix.

So why did these races switch places on the schedule in 2021? The reason for this is actually quite simple: the Austrian Grand Prix, despite all of the changes that have been made to the schedule due to COVID-19-related restrictions over the last two seasons, has never actually been rescheduled.

The race was on the initial 2020 schedule for Sunday, July 5, and it was on the initial 2021 schedule for Sunday, July 4.

Last year’s Styrian Grand Prix, which was a late addition to the calendar because of other race cancellations, was slotted into the schedule on Sunday, July 12.

This year’s Styrian Grand Prix, which was again a late addition to the calendar, was slotted into the schedule on Sunday, June 27, not Sunday, July 11.

The next race on the 2021 Formula 1 schedule is the British Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit, a track which also hosted a doubleheader last year due to the COVID-19-related schedule changes but is not slated to do so this year. This race is set to be broadcast live on ESPN beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, July 18.