The Red Bull Ring has quietly grown. An FIA scan ahead of this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix clocked the circuit at 4.326km — eight metres longer than last year's official figure of 4.318km, despite zero modifications to the layout.
Race director Rui Marques has formalized the new number in his event notes. Why the discrepancy? Nobody's quite sure. The FIA still measures via track centerline, and rescans elsewhere this season haven't produced anything like this. Best theories: natural land movement nudging the topography, or recent kerb tweaks at corner exits — particularly the final turn — shifting the centerline outward as the radius widens.
The knock-on effect is real if minor. With the start-finish offset unchanged at 126 meters, 71 laps now stretch to 307.02km versus 306.452km in 2024. Half a kilometer of extra running — call it one more fuel-save lap to factor into Sunday's strategy models.
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