Red Bull Ring

Red Bull Ring at a glance

Location

Spielberg, Styria

Type

road course

Length

4.326 km (2.688 mi)

Turns

10

Direction

clockwise

Surface

asphalt

Elevation change

213 ft

Opened

1969

Owner

Dietrich Mateschitz Beteiligungs GmbH (Red Bull)

Capacity

105,000

Address

Spielberg 1

Website

redbullring.com

Track map and layout

Set in the hills of Styria, the Red Bull Ring is a short, fast 4.326 km, 10-turn circuit with roughly 65 metres of elevation change between its lowest and highest points, giving the lap a rollercoaster character despite its compact length. Long straights connect a handful of heavy-braking corners, producing some of the closest, most overtaking-friendly racing on the modern F1 calendar. The track's short lap time and repeated hard braking zones — particularly into Turns 1, 3 and 4 — put a premium on braking stability and traction out of slow corners, while the circuit's mountain backdrop makes it one of the most scenic venues in motorsport.

Named corners and sections

• Turn 1 (Niki Lauda Kurve). A tight, uphill-braking right-hander named after Austrian F1 champion Niki Lauda; the primary overtaking spot on the opening lap.
• Remus. A fast downhill right-hander named after the Remus exhaust brand, a long-time circuit sponsor; a key setup corner leading into the following complex.
• Rindt. A corner named after 1970 posthumous world champion Jochen Rindt, part of the circuit's tradition of honouring Austrian motorsport figures in its corner names.

Configurations

Events and race weekends

The Red Bull Ring hosts the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, a fixture since the circuit's 2011 reopening and, historically, since the track's earliest days as the Österreichring. MotoGP's Austrian round returned to the venue in 2016 after a long absence and has become a fan favourite for its fast, flowing layout. DTM, Ferrari Challenge and a range of club and historic racing events fill out the rest of the calendar.

Getting there and parking

The Red Bull Ring sits in a rural part of Styria, roughly an hour's drive from Graz and about two hours from Vienna. There is no station at the circuit itself; the nearest railway station is Knittelfeld, from which free shuttle buses run roughly every 20 minutes to the track on event days, with regional trains linking Knittelfeld to Graz in about 80 minutes.

• Graz Airport (GRZ) · about 60 min drive
• Vienna International Airport (VIE) · about 130 min drive

Parking

General parking fields surround the circuit and are typically included with race tickets; arriving early is strongly recommended for the Austrian Grand Prix given the circuit's rural, single-road access.

Take the train to Knittelfeld and use the free shuttle buses on Grand Prix weekend — road access into the valley gets heavily congested, and the circuit's remote setting means traffic can back up for hours.

Hotels and camping near Red Bull Ring

The Red Bull Ring's remote, rural location means nearby towns like Knittelfeld and Judenburg have only modest hotel stock, so many visitors either camp or base themselves further out in Graz, which offers a much larger range of accommodation within roughly an hour's drive. Rooms across the whole region sell out and prices climb sharply for the Austrian Grand Prix weekend.

Where to look

Knittelfeld and Judenburg are the closest towns with hotels; Graz, about an hour's drive away, offers the widest choice of accommodation in the region.

Track days, driving experiences and lap records

The Red Bull Ring hosts a regular program of car and motorcycle track days and driving experiences alongside its championship race calendar, run both in-house and through third-party organisers, making use of the circuit's short, fast layout for both amateur and professional testing.

Who runs days here

• Red Bull Ring (in-house track days and experiences)both

Lap records

Spectator guide

The Red Bull Ring's compact, hillside layout gives many grandstands and general-admission slopes sweeping views over multiple corners at once, a rarity among modern F1 circuits, with the surrounding Styrian mountains adding a dramatic backdrop. The circuit's short lap length means even standing areas can offer sightlines to several parts of the track.

Seating

Grandstands cluster around Turn 1, Turn 3 and the final corners near the start-finish straight; hillside general-admission areas overlook much of the rest of the lap.

Best places to watch

The hillside above Turn 1 offers panoramic views of the opening-lap braking zone and much of the following sector, with the mountain scenery as a backdrop.

Weather

• June/July (F1): warm summer weather typical of the Austrian Alps, highs around 22-26°C, with a chance of afternoon thunderstorms
• August (MotoGP): similar warm conditions, highs around 22-25°C

History of Red Bull Ring

From Österreichring to a 1990s safety rebuild

The circuit opened in 1969 as the Österreichring, a fast, sweeping layout built into the Styrian hillside that quickly became one of the most spectacular tracks on the Formula 1 calendar, hosting the Austrian Grand Prix regularly from 1970. Its high speeds and limited run-off eventually raised safety concerns, and after the 1987 race the circuit dropped off the F1 calendar; it was significantly reconfigured in the mid-1990s and reopened in 1996 as the shorter, safety-focused A1-Ring, which brought F1 back to Austria from 1997 to 2003.

Closure and Red Bull's revival

Financial and contractual troubles closed the circuit again after 2003, and it sat largely dormant for several years until energy-drink company Red Bull, headquartered nearby, bought the site in 2004. Following a roughly €70 million reconstruction overseen by Hermann Tilke, the venue reopened in 2011 as the Red Bull Ring, restoring much of the site's dramatic elevation change within a modern, safety-compliant 4.326 km, 10-turn layout.

A modern fixture on two wheels and four

Formula 1 returned to the Red Bull Ring's calendar from 2014, and MotoGP followed with the revived Austrian Grand Prix from 2016, both quickly becoming fan favourites for the circuit's tight racing and scenic mountain setting. Today the venue combines its Grand Prix commitments with DTM, Ferrari Challenge, extensive public track days, and a large surrounding campsite culture that gives race weekends in the remote Styrian valley a strong festival atmosphere.

Frequently asked questions

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