Best seats at the Red Bull Ring: the Austrian Grand Prix grandstand guide

Our overall best pick is Turn 3.

It is the highest point of the circuit, it is the corner where most of the overtaking is done, and it is the one seat here that shows you a large part of the lap instead of a slice of it. In front of you is the longest straight on the track, climbing towards you up the hill. Beyond the corner is the run down to Turn 4. Across the valley you catch parts of Turns 6 and 7.

The main straight is the real alternative. You get the grid, the pit stops and the podium, a roof, and a corner at either end of your view. Almost everything else at this circuit shows you one corner and nothing more.

Every grandstand at a glance

Turn 3

The lap climbs a long way to get here, and the cars arrive at the top carrying a lot of speed with a slow right-hander still to negotiate. That combination, a long full-throttle run into heavy braking, is what makes passes happen, and it is why more overtaking is done at this corner than anywhere else on the circuit.

What makes Grandstand T3 our pick, though, is what you can see when the cars are elsewhere. Height is the whole point of this circuit. From the top you are looking down the climb as they come up it, across at the run towards Turn 4 as they leave, and out at parts of Turns 6 and 7 beyond that. You spend the afternoon watching a race rather than watching cars appear and disappear.

If you book one seat at the Red Bull Ring, book this one.

The main straight

Everything that is not racing happens in front of these seats. The cars line up on the grid here, the race starts here, the pit stops happen across the track, and the trophies are handed out here at the end.

The roof is the first reason to be here, and all three Start-Finish blocks have one. The race falls in the middle of summer, when track temperatures reach 40 degrees, and the same afternoon can still turn to cold rain. Shade you can count on is worth more here than the seating map suggests. Grandstand Start-Finish D-N is the middle of the three and the one to want, because the grid forms up directly in front of it.

The second reason is that you are not only watching a straight. Turn 1 sits at the end of it, and while it is no Turn 3, it is a real overtaking spot, so passes happen in front of you rather than only on the screen. Look right and you have the last corner of the lap, a fast right-hander that has produced more than its share of incidents over the years. Between the two you get the start, the pit stops, the podium and a corner at each end of your view.

ABC and OPQ sit either side and usually cost less. They are covered too, so what you give up is part of the grid view rather than the roof, in exchange for a better angle into the corner at their end.

For a first Grand Prix this is the seat. The main straight is where the occasion is, and D-N is the comfortable way to watch it.

The climb, and the best value seat at the circuit

The Red Bull stands run in a chain up the hill, from A at the bottom to L-P at the top, and they are not interchangeable.

A and B catch cars accelerating away from the first corner. CDE and FGHI sit mid-climb, high enough to start looking back down over the circuit. JK sits higher again, where the cars are at their fastest.

Red Bull L-P is the last block before Turn 3, and the one to book if you care what a seat costs. It sits at the top of the second straight, and the view from it does more work than the price suggests. You see a good deal of the overtaking, because you are looking along the run into the braking zone rather than at one corner. Turn 3 is visible ahead of you. Turns 6 and 7 are visible across the circuit. It is the closest thing here to the Turn 3 view without paying for it.

The other reason to sit here is behind you rather than in front. These stands are next to the main fan zone, so food, drink, screens and everything else are a short walk rather than a trek across a hillside. Over three days that matters more than it sounds.

The top and the far side

Schonberg looks over the long run down from Turn 3, the fastest stretch of the lap, where a driver with a good exit lines up a pass for the corner at the far end. Grandstand North sits at that corner, where they turn back down towards the infield, and it is the only covered stand away from the main straight. If you want a roof without paying main-straight prices, this is the one to look at.

Centre/Mitte is the odd one, inside the circuit rather than around it. It looks outward at the middle sequence with the hillside rising behind, which makes for a better photograph than a better view of the racing. It is also home to the Orange Army, Verstappen's fans, so expect noise and a lot of orange.

The last corners

T9 and T10 look at the final sequence, which ends in a fast double right-hander onto the main straight. It is quick enough to have caught a lot of drivers out over the years, and anyone hoping to attack on the straight has to get through it close first. You can see this corner from the main-straight stands too, off to your right.

Practical notes

The circuit is in the Styrian hills, about an hour from Graz and two and a half from Vienna, and most people drive or take a shuttle rather than arrive by train. Book that side of the trip early, because local capacity is small next to the size of the crowd.

Pack for weather in both directions. Up here the same weekend can give you strong sun and cold rain, and very little of the seating is covered. Take a towel you can soak in water and wear on the hottest day, and do not skip the sunscreen. Wear shoes you can walk in, because anything far from the fan zone is a long walk on a hillside.

The weekend is well run, and there is a great deal on beyond the Grand Prix itself: Formula 2, Formula 3, the Porsche Supercup, air displays and Red Bull's own shows.