All Info You Need to See Before The 2025 Austrian Grand Prix Starts

The 2025 Austrian Grand Prix will be the 11th race of the Formula 1 World Championship season.

In the same week of the worldwide release of F1: The Movie (great one, by the way), we might have a thrilling Austrian Grand Prix in the sensational Red Bull Ring.

The circuit has often provided us with some great racing, as seen last year when Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Lando Norris (McLaren) fought for the win, only to end their chances with a crash. Eventually, George Russell won the 2024 edition for Mercedes.

The British driver will be looking for consecutive wins at Austria and consecutive wins this year, too, coming off his impressive drive at Montreal.

16 LECLERC Charles (mco), Scuderia Ferrari SF-24, action during the Formula 1 Qatar Airways Austrian Grand Prix 2024, 11th round of the 2024 Formula One World Championship from June 28 to 30, 2024 on the Red Bull Ring, in Spielberg, Austria - Photo Florent Gooden / DPPI

Oscar Piastri leads his McLaren teammate, Norris, in the World Drivers' Championship with 198 points. Norris is 22 points behind after crashing out of the Canadian GP and is desperate for a big result. Arguably the favorite for the upcoming race, Verstappen, is third in the WDC, 43 points behind.

Russell, on the other hand, has a long shot at the WDC, with his win in the previous race putting him fourth in the standings with 136 points.

In the Constructors' standings, McLaren (374 points) leads comfortably over Mercedes (199 points with Russell and Kimi Antonelli).

2025 Austrian GP Facts & Figures

The 2025 edition of the Austrian GP will be the 38th in F1's history.

The Austrian Grand Prix was first held as a World Championship race in 1964 at Zeltweg, and Lorenzo Bandini won it for Ferrari. In the 1964 race, Jochen Rindt made his F1 debut, and he would become the first Austrian to win the World Title in 1970.

From 1965 to 1969, the race was not part of the World Championship. In 1970, the Österreichring made its first appearance in the World Championship calendar, and Ferrari won again, this time with Jacky Ickx behind the wheel of the beautiful 312B. Sadly, the 1970 Austrian Grand Prix was Rindt’s final race start before he tragically lost his life during practice in Italy.

Jackie Stewart achieved his second World title in Austria in 1971, while Vittorio Brambilla, John Watson, and Alan Jones became Grand Prix winners in the Austrian circuit. Also, Elio de Angelis took his first Formula 1 win in Austria in 1982. The race was scrapped from the F1 calendar after 1987 and returned with a revamped circuit, renamed as the A-1 Ring, which was safer than the previous layout, where American driver Mark Donohue sustained a horrible accident in 1975 that eventually took his life.

Hermann Tilke was in charge of the modernization of the track, and it provided some good races from 1997 to 2003. However, there was controversy in 2002 when Ferrari ordered Rubens Barrichello to let Michael Schumacher through. Schumacher was leading the championship comfortably and Barrichello had dominated the weekend.

2002 Austrian podium: Barrichello gets trophy from Schumacher because he had to give away the win.

The circuit returned in 2014, again renamed, this time as the Red Bull Ring, with the brand as the owner. Mercedes dominated from 2014 to 2017 with Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, and Valtteri Bottas. Red Bull was finally competitive enough in 2018 and 2019 and Verstappen took two great victories, especially in 2019 with great overtaking.

Bottas won the 2020 edition, while Verstappen won the 2021 race. On his side, Charles Leclerc gave Ferrari its sixth win at the circuit in 2022. Verstappen again triumphed for Red Bull in 2023, while also taking home the win in the Sprint Race.

George Russell won the 2024 edition.

In 2020 and 2021, the circuit also hosted the Styrian Grand Prix, with Hamilton winning in 2020 and Verstappen in 2021.

Max Verstappen leads the drivers’ table with four wins in the Austrian GP (he has five wins at the track), while McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes lead the teams with six victories in the venue.

Red Bull Ring

The track, although a relatively new circuit, has some old-school style to it and is a pure racing venue in its own right. The shortened version of the original Österreichring, now known as the Red Bull Ring, is a beautiful place to see F1 machines fighting and going around the circuit at truly awesome speeds.

As for the hot spots of the track, Turn 1 is often a site of battles while Turn 2 and Turn 3 normally see real action due to the long acceleration zones preceding them. With DRS on the main straight and the next two acceleration areas since 2019, there have been many overtaking opportunities, and on-track battles have been fairly entertaining.

The circuit length is 4.326 km and the lap records are held by Valtteri Bottas (outright record: 1:02.939 min in qualifying for the 2020 race) and Carlos Sainz (Fastest Lap during the 2020 race with McLaren: 1:05.619 min).

2025 Austrian Grand Prix - Tyres

The dry tyres for the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix will be the C3 compound as P Zero White hard, C4 as P Zero Yellow medium, and C5 as P Zero Red soft.

A press release from Pirelli explained the tyre choice for the upcoming weekend: "The choice of compounds the teams can use is the same as last year’s, namely C3 as Hard, C4 as Medium, and C5 as Soft. The track surface at the Red Bull Ring is rather old and is highly abrasive, but wear is not a key factor.

"With very few corners, the track is not very severe in terms of the lateral forces exerted on the tyres, while degradation is mainly thermal in origin, which is down to the track layout with several hard braking and acceleration points. Managing tyre overheating, particularly on the rear axle, is a significant challenge.

"Furthermore, air and track temperatures can be quite high at this time of year.

RED BULL RING, AUSTRIA - JULY 07: Pirelli signage during the Austrian GP at Red Bull Ring on Thursday July 07, 2022 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images)

"Last year’s race was very linear, at least over the first two thirds of the race. As expected, the most effective strategy was a two-stop: those who did three or more – Verstappen, Leclerc, Alonso and Sargeant – did so for unforeseen circumstances, not by choice.

"All the drivers lined up on the grid on Medium tyres while, starting from pit lane, Zhou went with the Hard.

"The C4 and the C3 were the undoubted protagonists of this race, with the C5 only putting in an appearance at the end, used by Verstappen for the last seven laps after his enforced stop and by Alonso, who was trying for the race fastest lap, which he did indeed set.

"Daniel Ricciardo drove the longest stint of the race, completing a 34 lap third and final stint on the Hard tyre. The prize on Mediums went to Pierre Gasly who did 29 laps and, in this case too, the French Alpine driver did it in his final stint."

The minimum starting pressures for the dry tyres are 22.5 psi (front) and 20.0 psi (rear).

2025 Austrian Grand Prix Weather Forecast

Friday, June 27th - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Variable cloudiness with a brief shower or two
Max. temperature: 27°C
Chance of rain: 80%

Saturday, June 28th - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Partly sunny and very warm
Max. temperature: 29°C
Chance of rain: 3%

Sunday, June 29th - Race
Conditions: Very warm with sunshine and a few clouds
Max. temperature: 31°C
Chance of rain: 1%

Who will be on the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix Podium?

RED BULL RING, AUSTRIA - JUNE 30: Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Team, 2nd position, George Russell, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team, 1st position, the Mercedes trophy delegate and Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari, 3rd position, on the podium during the Austrian GP at Red Bull Ring on Sunday June 30, 2024 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Zak Mauger / LAT Images)

Max Verstappen is our favorite to win the Austrian GP for a fifth time. However, oddsmakers are still backing the McLaren pair of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris for the win on Sunday.

McLaren winning would be business as usual, perhaps, but surely Red Bull will fight until the end with the Dutchman.

Mercedes could perform well again, although last year's solid performance in Canada didn't translate to Austria, even though Russell won. They'd need to sort that out this year.

Meanwhile, Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, remains unpredictable ahead of every Grand Prix. Can they fight for podium spots? Possibly.

Our podium prediction for the 2025 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix is 1. Max Verstappen, 2. Lando Norris, 3. Oscar Piastri.

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