Formula One returns to Austria this weekend for round eight of the 2026 championship at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli arriving as the championship leader after a dominant start to the season.
Circuit facts
The Red Bull Ring, owned by Red Bull, is the shortest lap on the Formula One calendar in terms of lap time, with drivers completing the 10-corner circuit in just over a minute.
The track measures 4.326 kilometres, with Sunday’s race covering 71 laps for a total distance of 307.018 km. The race is scheduled to start at 1300 GMT (1500 local time).
Situated around 700 metres above sea level, the circuit features a 69-metre elevation change between its highest and lowest points, second only to Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps among current Formula One venues.
Austria will host its 39th Formula One Grand Prix this year. The inaugural race was held at Zeltweg airfield in 1964 before moving to the Oesterreichring in 1970, a circuit that later became the A1 Ring and is now known as the Red Bull Ring.
Lando Norris secured pole position and victory at Spielberg in 2025, while McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri holds the race lap record for the current configuration with a time of 1:07.924.
History and records
Max Verstappen is the most successful driver in Austrian Grand Prix history among active competitors, with four victories at Spielberg in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023.
Other active Austrian Grand Prix winners include Charles Leclerc (2022), Lewis Hamilton (2016), George Russell (2024) and Norris (2025).
McLaren are the most successful team in Austrian Grand Prix history with seven championship victories, ahead of Mercedes and Ferrari, who have six each.
Eleven of the last 21 Austrian Grands Prix have been won from pole position.
Verstappen and Hamilton also won the Styrian Grands Prix staged at the same venue during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
Championship battle
Antonelli leads the drivers’ championship by 41 points over Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, with Mercedes teammate George Russell a further nine points behind.
Mercedes have established a commanding lead in the constructors’ standings, sitting 72 points ahead of Ferrari. Defending champions McLaren are third, 121 points off the pace.
Season so far
Antonelli has won five of the season’s opening seven races, triumphing in China, Japan, Miami, Monaco and Canada.
Russell opened the campaign with victory in Australia, while Hamilton ended Mercedes’ six-race winning streak by claiming his first win for Ferrari at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.
Mercedes won each of the first six races of the season.
Hamilton’s Barcelona victory was the 106th of his career, extending his all-time record and moving Ferrari to within one win of 250 Formula One victories.
Verstappen remains third on the all-time winners list with 71 career victories, behind Hamilton and Michael Schumacher’s 91.
Qualifying dominance
Hamilton holds the record for career pole positions with 104, although his most recent came at the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Mercedes have taken pole position at every race this season. Russell started from pole in Australia, Canada and Spain, while Antonelli topped qualifying in China, Japan, Miami and Monaco.
Notable milestones
Hamilton’s victory in Barcelona made him the oldest Formula One race winner since Jack Brabham won at the age of 43 in 1970.
The Ferrari driver’s success also extended the record for the longest span between a driver’s first and most recent victories, with his wins now stretching from 2007 to his 20th Formula One season.
The Spanish Grand Prix podium of Hamilton, Russell and Norris marked the first all-British top three finish since the 1968 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.
