Wurz helped Tilke design Austin layout

Alex Wurz had a hand in the layout of the new Circuit of the Americas, which has lauded by formula one drivers this weekend.

Wurz, now 38 and a sports car driver, contested 69 grands prix between 1997 and 2007, finishing on the podium three times.

The Austrian now works as a ’driver coach’ at Williams, serving alongside his friend and countryman Toto Wolff, the British team’s new shareholder and director.

But Wurz also heads up his own company Firma Test and Technik International, a company he founded in 2006 with his father Franz, a former rallycross driver.

Wurz’s company reportedly worked alongside regular F1 circuit designer Hermann Tilke on the Austin layout, which features sections copied from famous F1 circuits including Silverstone, Suzuka, Hockenheim and Istanbul.

Kleine Zeitung newspaper said Wurz advised on Tilke’s layout in the state-of-the-art McLaren simulator.

"There were a multitude of little things that were decided jointly," he said. "First you have a layout, then you feed all the data into the simulator.

"In the McLaren simulator I’ve seen what needs to be changed, working with Hermann to make it more F1-compatible," Wurz explained. "So that overtaking is possible.