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<\/p>\nRound ten brings F1 to the Styrian mountains for the Austrian Grand Prix, kick-starting the run into the summer break with four races in five weeks. The Red Bull Ring returned to the calendar after a decades hiatus in 2014, and remains one of the favourites for drivers as it\u2019s a short high-speed, technical circuit.<\/p>\n
The circuit requires low downforce and throughout its history has retained the character of the original circuit as well as the shape, despite being shortened throughout its history. The area around the Red Bull Ring has been home to F1 since the 1960s, originally Zeltweg Air Base two miles away, before moving to the Osterreichring in 1970, now called the Red Bull Ring.<\/p>\n
A mixture of high-speed corners and elevation during the course of a lap, 65 m (213 ft) from the lowest to the highest point. Like most fast circuits, it was hard on engines but more difficult on tyres because speeds were so consistently high. It makes this circuit feel like a go-kart circuit as it requires power, traction and straight-line speed for the straights and corners.<\/p>\n
This creates several opportunities at the end of the straights with Lauda (Turn One), Turn Two AMS AG (Three), and Lauda (Ten) being good places to overtake under braking. This means this creates close racing with plenty of overtaking opportunities, as well as some of the closest races of the season at the front.<\/p>\n
Although narrow at 10 m (11 yd) in all places, the track was very fast, every corner was a fast sweeper and was taken in no lower than third gear in a five-speed gearbox and fourth in a six-speed gearbox. This is a race which drivers need to be warry as this circuit is an old school circuit lined with grass and gravel<\/p>\n
Throughout its fifty years on and off the calendar, the high altitude of the circuit in the turbo eras has favoured the faster cars. The circuit is roughly 660 metres above sea level it is one of the highest altitude races of the season, which means that performance levels are more equal. We often see the fastest lap times of the season with the fastest laps below seventy seconds for a lap. Following cars should be easier, and we have seen great races on track in the hybrid era.<\/p>\n
The Grand Prix moved from nearby Zeltweg Airbase in 1970 to it current location, which has also been known as the Osterreichring, in English Circuit of Austria, and the A1 Ring.<\/p>\n
The first race at this venue was held in 1970 on the much longer Osterreichring, which shared similar characteristics to the current shorter Red Bull Ring, with its long straights and fast-flowing corners, making it popular with drivers and fans.<\/p>\n
The 1971 race saw Jo Siffert dominate in his BRM and Briton Jackie Stewart took his second Drivers\u2019 Championship. The 1975 race was marred by the fatal accident of Mark Donohue, and the race itself was rain-soaked and was won by Vittorio Brambilla, winning the only F1 race of his career, and, true to form, he crashed into the guardrail and broke the nose of his car shortly after crossing the finish line.<\/p>\n
1977 saw a slow three-corner chicane installed at Voest-Hugel, which was where Donohue had crashed two years before. What was the fastest corner on the track was now the slowest corner there and would become known as the Hella-Licht Chicane. This race was won by Australian Alan Jones in a Shadow, and like with Brambilla and Watson, it was his first Grand Prix victory.<\/p>\n
1979 started to show the superiority of turbo-charged engines on this fast and high-altitude circuit. Although Jones won again in a Williams, Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Rene Arnoux in their Renaults were able to dominate this event and also the following year’s race, which Jabouille won.<\/p>\n
Turbo engines have always held an advantage here, given we are high in the Styrian Hills, the altitude acts as a performance leveller, though this is the shorter version of the original circuit, many of the characteristics are unchanged.<\/p>\n
1984 saw Lauda finally take victory at home Grand Prix in his McLaren, and Prost won the next two races. The 1985 race saw a fearsome crash at the Panorama Curve when Andrea de Cesaris spectacularly rolled his Ligier, which led to him being fired from the team.<\/p>\n
The 1980s were defined by a series of accidents as well as classic battles, including in 1985 when Andrea de Cesaris spectacularly rolled his Ligier, which led to him being fired from the team. 1986 saw Austrian driver Gerhard Berger lead the early laps in his 1,400 bhp (1,044 kW; 1,419 PS) Benetton-BMW, but electrical problems saw his race ruined, allowing Alain Prost to take the win by over a lap from the Ferraris of Michele Alboreto and Stefan Johansson.<\/p>\n
The 1987 race was restarted twice due to accidents on the narrow pit-straight grid; and this track was also deemed too dangerous by FIA standards, because of the number of high-speed corners, lack of protection from trees and embankments and accidents at the start of many races on the narrow and confined pit straight.<\/p>\n
The early 1990s saw the first redevelopment of the circuit, which formed the basis of this modern circuit, designed by Hermann Tilke who made the circuit was made shorter and slowed down many of the corners to create the current circuit.<\/p>\n
The Hella-Licht chicane, Flatschach, Dr. Tiroch curve, and the first half of the backstretch run up to where the Bosch-Kurve was taken out and replaced with a bypass that went directly to the second half of the fast, uphill backstretch. However, unlike many of his more modern circuits, the grass and gravel was retained, making mistakes still being costly.<\/p>\n
The A1-Ring as it was called, was dominated by McLaren and Ferrari who took three wins each, but the first race of that era was won by Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve. Eddie Irvine took victory in 1999, Ferrari\u2019s first win in Styria for thirty years. McLaren took victory in both 2000 and 2001, H\u00e4kkinen leading from pole ahead of Coulthard.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the final two races of this era were some of the most controversial finishes of all time. Ferrari, on the final lap, ordered Rubens Barrichello, who had led most of the race to allow the German through, to take victory and extend his lead over Coulthard in the championship. That resulted in Schumacher, Barrichello and Ferrari all being fined $1m and a ban on team orders until Ferrari used them at Hockenheim in 2010, with the ban then being lifted as it was deemed unworkable<\/p>\n
After a failed redevelopment by the owners going bankrupt and being bought by Red Bull, rendering the circuit unusable for most of the 2000s, rebuilding work finally began in 2009, with the circuit reopening with the Austrian Historic Grand Prix in May 2011. Before the Grand Prix returned in 2014, replacing the failed New York Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Felipe Massa caused a huge surprise when he took his first pole since S\u00e3o Paulo 2008 and the last of his career, beating teammate Valtteri Bottas by four tenths to secure Williams first front row lockout since Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher did so, at the 2003 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.<\/p>\n
Mercedes cars were able to pass the Williams cars by stopping earlier and undercutting them during the pitstop phases. Rosberg passed both Williams’ during the first stops, and Hamilton took second position during the second round, despite suffering two slow pit stops.<\/p>\n
But throughout the race, Mercedes cars had to manage overheating brake issues. On lap 55, Hamilton was held up by backmarkers, losing around a second. During the final laps, Hamilton was slowly gaining on teammate Rosberg, and despite having lost a total of 1.9 seconds to his teammate through slower pit stops, he began the final lap 1.1 seconds behind.<\/p>\n
In 2016 Rosberg took pole before losing out to Hamilton at the start, but he did come back during the race before the two Mercedes went wheel to wheel on the final lap when Hamilton was pushed to the outside at AMG AS. As they exited the corner, Rosberg pushed him onto the grass, but Hamilton exited Turn Three making contact twice. The German nursing his car to victory<\/p>\n
However, a double retirement for Mercedes in 2018 saw Max Verstappen take the first of four victories in Spielberg, Red Bull\u2019s, first win at their home race, finishing ahead of the two Ferrari\u2019s, the only other cars on the lead lap, while Haas had its best finish to date with Romain Grosjean fourth and Kevin Magnussen fifth.<\/p>\n
The Dutchman took victory again in 2019, despite stalling on the grid, in the closing stages, passing both Mercedes and Ferrari to take Honda\u2019s first win since Budapest in 2006. It was also the only race of 2019 not won by Mercedes, maybe that\u2019s some hope that history can be repeated despite the advantage that Red Bull has.<\/p>\n
In both 2020 and 2021, Spielberg held double headers due to the pandemic, marking the first time a circuit held two consecutive championship races. Bottas won the first race weekend, beating Charles Leclerc, despite Ferrari expecting to be on the backfoot following testing. Hamilton was second on track, but was given a five-second penalty for causing a collision with Alex Albon, which moved Lando Norris into third, scoring his first podium.<\/p>\n
Hamilton bounced back the following weekend to win the Styrian race ahead of Bottas from pole. The Finn dropped behind Verstappen in a battle for second, but the Mercedes hung on.<\/p>\n
Leclerc took victory in 2022, finishing a second and a half ahead of Verstappen, following a race-long battle despite having throttle issues. The Ferrari driver passed the Dutchman early on as he dived down the inside at Remus. At that stage in the race the Red Bull looked slower, trying to come back at Turn Four, he locked up, dropping further behind. Hamilton finished the race third after Mercedes used a clever two-stop strategy while others around him had to use a three-stop strategy to surge through the field after starting ninth on the grid.<\/p>\n
Verstappen took his fifth win in 2023, finishing the race five seconds ahead of Leclerc, as he took Red Bull\u2019s tenth win in a row. The Dutchman continued his dominant form to take ten wins for Red Bull in a row after leading nearly every lap and showing how dominant the Red Bull is, although the gap appeared to narrow as he was only five seconds behind.<\/p>\n
2024 Verstappen converted pole in the sprint into a four and a half seconds to win after fending off Norris to take his third sprint win of the year. Norris only briefly lost second to Piastri when he tried to lunge pass Verstappen on Lap Five at AMG AS before the Australian closed in and passed his teammate a few corners later. Verstappen was then able to pull away following that battle between the two McLarens, as Piastri closed the gap when they both ran too deep at AMG AS and Rauch.<\/p>\n
Verstappen again took pole with a 04.314 in Grand Prix qualifying again ahead of Norris this time by four-tenths. Russell was promoted to third after Piastri had his fastest time deleted for track limits at Turn Six. That moved Sainz, Lewis Hamilton and Leclerc all up one place. Sainz was a hundredth behind Russell\u2019s Mercedes and went half a tenth faster than Hamilton<\/p>\n
Russell took victory finishing almost two seconds ahead of Piastri after they inherited places after Verstappen and Norris collided with seven laps to go. Norris tried to overtake Verstappen at AMG AS with them both getting punchers and the Dutchman gaining a five-second penalty.<\/p>\n
Russell had qualified third, only briefly losing out to Hamilton early on before retaking third shortly after, from then on was third up until the collision between Verstappen and Norris. But they were pushed all the way by Piastri in the final laps but were able to maintain his winning advantage. Piastri delivered another solid race in fourth before things changed dramatically.\u00a0 Carlos Sainz was third, two and a half seconds behind Piastri.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
| Round<\/td>\n | 10 of 22<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Race<\/td>\n | Formula 1 Lenovo Austrian Grand Prix 2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Venue<\/td>\n | Red Bull Ring, Spielberg, Styria, Austria<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Configuration<\/td>\n | 2025<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Circuit Length<\/td>\n | 4.326 km (2.688 mi)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Laps<\/td>\n | 71<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Race Distance<\/td>\n | 307.018 km (190.420 mi)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap<\/p>\n Record<\/td>\n | Race<\/td>\n | 01:07.924 (Australia Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL39, 2025, F1)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Outright<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Previous Current Winners *<\/td>\n | Max Verstappen (5)<\/p>\n Valtteri Bottas (3)<\/p>\n Lewis Hamilton (2)<\/p>\n Charles Leclerc<\/p>\n George Russell (1)<\/p>\n Lando Norris<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Most Wins (Drivers)<\/td>\n | Max Verstappen (4)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Most Wins (Constructor)<\/td>\n | Ferrari (7)<\/p>\n McLaren<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Most Wins (Engine Manufacture)<\/td>\n | Ford (10)<\/p>\n Mercedes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n *Including 2020 and 2021 Styrian Grands Prix<\/p>\n Fast facts<\/h4>\nEvent timetable<\/h4>\n
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