Austrian Grand Prix

Ring of steelRing of steel

2026 SEASON

Welcome to Austria

Great things come in small packages, and nowhere is that more true than at the Red Bull Ring, nestled in the foothills of the Styrian Alps. The pocket-sized circuit crams a lot into a small volume. While the dairy herds look on from their nearby pastures, the racetrack zips up and down the hillside, with a blend of tricky kerbs, unusual cambers and excellent overtaking opportunities. It never disappoints, and always requires mettle.

We'll have Jak back behind the wheel of the AMR26 as he takes part in Free Practice One in his duties as Third Driver, and we also have Mari in action this weekend, as the F2 races start coming thick and fast now we're into the meat of the European season.

RACE STARTS IN:

days

hrs

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Session Times

FP1

FP2

FP3

Quali

Race

Toggle below to highlight parts of the track.

Sectors
Turns
Straight Mode
Overtake Mode

Remus Kurve is one of the most action-packed spots on the calendar. You come from over 300km/h down to some of the slowest speeds.

Jak Crawford – Third Driver

Circuit length
4.318km
Number of corners
10
Race distance
306.452km

NEED TO KNOW: AUSTRIAN GP

THE CIRCUIT

THE GRAND PRIX

THE STRATEGY

THE FACTS

THE TRAVEL GUIDE

LAST TIME OUT IN AUSTRIA

THE CIRCUIT

The current layout of the Red Bull Ring is a bargain of necessity, originally sketched by former F1 driver Alex Wurz, going to the boundaries of the small parcel of land on which a racetrack can sit. This hasn't hampered the race in the slightest: it's a high-speed, overtaking-friendly rocket that never fails to produce drama.

It's also a circuit of two distinct, albeit uneven, halves. The first is all about power. It makes T1, T3 (T2 doesn't really exist for an F1 car) and T4 prime overtaking spots, but, rather like Jeddah, there's often a little bit of chess involved in making a pass: make the move at T1, there's a strong likelihood of being re-passed into T3, which often means drivers opt to hold-fire.

The patient driver will often wait until T4 to make the decisive move, and then use the second half of the lap, with its fast corners, to break the tow. It tends to create a setup dilemma: the first half of the lap demanding a low-drag car, and the second requiring high levels of downforce – and you can't have both. It's also an interesting challenge in terms of suspension setup with the high-speed sections suiting a very stiff car, but the up-and-down nature of the track providing some interesting cambers. T3 is particularly tricky, with the cars lifting at least one wheel off the ground if the driver goes for the apex.

THE GRAND PRIX

The current circuit above Spielberg is a cut-down version of the old Österreichring, hemmed-in by various local covenants – but it makes the most of what it has, falling in big, open loops down the hillside, which from a spectators' point of view is magnificent, because the topography ensures every grandstand can see two or three areas of track.

The general admission is really good at the Red Bull Ring, with the meadow above the track having a great view of the action-packed straight between T3 and T4 in the foreground, with the rest of the track tumbling away below, all framed by F1's best panoramic view. Fabulous on a sunny day… less so when one of the periodic thunderstorms sweeps up the valley.

Regarding the grandstand seats, different days call for different things: The T9 and T10 grandstands stand out because they don't have the sightlines afforded the rest of the track, and they don't look out onto corners with a lot of race action – but they're the key parts of the circuit for Qualifying, so watching from here is a good way to spend a Saturday. For Sunday… really, take your pick. The way the current cars work, T3 tends to have the most action… but really, it's all action.

THE STRATEGY

The recent Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix hinted that teams are developing a better understanding of their cars now, and races are returning to a more normal strategic pattern – which, at the Red Bull Ring, would suggest a two-stop race.

The last three Grands Prix at this circuit have seen the two-stop dominate. The C5 Soft tyre is out of favour, with the C4 Medium being the race tyre of choice, with the dominant strategies involving two Medium stints of around 20-25 laps, and a longer stint on the Hard compound. Medium-Medium-Hard and Medium-Hard-Medium have both won the race, with the latter being the more common.

There are, however, other ways to score, with Fernando last year making a one-stop work. He race a Medium-Hard race, taking the C4 all the way to lap 33 before making his only stop of the afternoon.

It is, however, worth noting that the weather in this valley tends towards the Mercurial, and showers are forecast. We've yet to have a wet race with these cars.

THE FACTS

1 | This is the 39th World Championship Austrian Grand Prix. The race was introduced to the calendar in 1964, ran on a temporary circuit at Zeltweg Airfield. It returned in 1970 at the newly-constructed Österreichring, a few kilometres from Zeltweg. The race was ever-present at the Österreichring until 1987. It returned on a shortened version of the track, renamed the A1-Ring, in 1997 and was used until 2003. It returned in 2014 with the track now called the Red Bull Ring – but functionally unchanged from the A1-Ring layout.

2 | In addition to the Austrian Grand Prix, the Red Bull Ring also hosted the Styrian Grand Prix in 2020 and 2021. These were part of the Covid calendars, and run on consecutive weekends with the Austrian Grand Prix. In 2021 the Styrian Grand Prix preceded the Austrian Grand Prix, but in 2020 it followed – making the Austrian Grand Prix on July 5th, the latest opening race of an F1 season.

3 | Esteban Ocon holds the unwanted record of the most driving penalties accrued in one race, picking up five at the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix.

4 | The 2023 Austrian Grand Prix saw F1's first experience with its low carbon energy solution for the paddock. A combination of hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), solar panels, and battery energy storage systems (BESS), removed the requirement for the 10 F1 teams, the FIA and F1's own operation to use their own generators.

5 | The 2019 Austrian Grand Prix was Lance's 50th race start… and Kimi Räikkönen's 300th.

6 | Austrian drivers (or those with an Austrian licence) tend to have their F1 debut in Austria. There are World Champions Jochen Rindt (1964) and Niki Lauda (1971), joined by, among others, Helmut Marko (1971), and Gerhard Berger (1984).

7 | The Red Bull Ring has a longer lap than Monaco, Zandvoort, Interlagos and the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, but the amount of the lap taken at full throttle means it has the shortest lap-time on the current calendar, with the ultimate record being Valterri Bottas' 1:02.939 during Q3 in 2020. (Bottas holds the record of 0:53.377 for the all-time shortest lap-time, set on the Outer Circuit of the Bahrain International Circuit for the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix).

THE TRAVEL GUIDE

Formula One venues are an eclectic bunch, and at no point is that more apparent than during the jump from Barcelona to Spielberg. Following big city hotels and urban street parties, the move to bucolic hillside pastures and timber-roofed, geranium-strewn farmhouses is quite the step-change. This is the Grand Prix for everyone who likes their motor racing to celebrate the great outdoors. Bring the hiking boots.

We're not in the Styrian Alps at the Red Bull Ring, but we're certainly in the foothills. The countryside is a patchwork of pastures and forests, albeit with a real sense of F1 history. This is a race for guesthouses rather than hotels – though even they are in short supply, so overwhelmingly this is a weekend for camping. It's all ferociously well-organised – just don't expect it to be quiet. This is a race where the party lasts 'til dawn.

For a bit more culture, the towns up and down the Mur Valley tend to offer plenty of traditional Austrian hospitality, and given the summer date, sitting outdoors with a good meal late into the evening is just about the perfect ending to a day at the track. The famous local export is pumpkin oil – but if that doesn't appeal, the region is also famed for the quality of its beer.

If you do yearn for a bit of peace and quiet, there are plenty of walks and bike trails in the surrounding hills. It's not something with which F1 staff usually have much experience, but the back-to-back Austrian/Styrian Grands Prix of 2020/21 encouraged everyone to get out into nature, and it's become quite popular.

LAST TIME OUT IN AUSTRIA

Our Austrian Grand Prix debut in 2021 saw both Lance and Sebastian make spritely starts on the Soft tyres but struggle with the longer stints on the harder compounds, falling back. Lance, who started P9, fell back to P13, while Seb, well out of the points, had the misfortune of a last-lap collision with badminton partner Kimi Räikkönen and didn't see the flag, classified P17.

2022 saw the team split strategy, with Lance, qualifying 12th, starting on a Medium and Seb, back in 18th, on a Hard. Both battled away but with little impact: Lance losing one place by the flag, Seb gaining one.

2023 was a much better performance, with Lance fourth and Fernando fifth in the Sprint. They qualified sixth and seventh respectively for the main race. Fernando made up ground with a reverse strategy, starting on a Hard tyre. A VSC didn't help him, but he came home in P6, which turned into P5 after a penalty for Carlos Sainz. Lance had a mis-timed stop under that same VSC, lost a few places, converted to a three-stop and came home in P9.

2024 was a frustrating race with the AMR24 not really suited to the Red Bull Ring. Both cars picked up a few dings along the way, Lance surviving a tight first lap with a couple of nudges, and Fernando picking up a penalty for contact with Zhou Guanyu later in the race. It didn't really impact the final result, Lance finishing P13 and Fernando P18 – albeit with the consolation of setting fastest lap.

Last year the AMR25 proved very sensitive to temperature, looking good under grey skies at the start of the weekend but lacking balance when the sun came out and the tarmac heated. Lance started P16 and finished P14, but Fernando translated P11 on the grid into P7 at the chequered flag, gambling on a very difficult one-stop strategy but executing it perfectly.