Want to know where to park at the Red Bull Ring to get as close as possible to your grandstand or the General Admission zone? Below I’ll provide that info, and more tips for Parking at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Red Bull Ring Parking for the F1 weekend
There are two options for parking at the Red Bull Ring circuit for the Formula 1:
- Free parking areas around the outside of the circuit
- Paid parking closer to the circuit
Free Parking
You don’t need to pay for parking during the Formula 1 weekend. The car parks around the perimeter of the circuit are free all weekend long for cars, bikes and vans. These are day parking only – no overnight stays.
These free parking areas do not need to be booked in advance. You can just turn up on the day, show your F1 ticket and you’ll be granted access.
The map below shows the layout of the car parks around the Red Bull Ring. I’ve edited the image to make the parking labels bigger as they were almost unreadable on the original:
The free parking is all of the dark blue parking areas. So P5, P7, P8, P9, P11, P13-P16. From most of these you should allow around a 15 – 30 minutes to walk to the nearest entrances.
So which car park is closest to your grandstand? I’ve listed them below:
- General Admission: P13 – P16
- Start / Ziel grandstand – P9
- Steiermark grandstand – P9
- Red Bull Grandstand – P7 or P5
- T3 grandstand – P7 or P13 – P16
- Schonberg grandstand – P13 – P16
- Nord grandstand – P13 – P16
- Mitte / Centre grandstand – P13 – P16 or P9
- T8 grandstand – P13 – P16 or P9
- T9 grandstand – P11
- T10 grandstand – P11
However, you cannot select a specific parking area. As you approach the circuit by car you’ll see a number of signs giving you directions based on the colour of your tickets – Blue, Yellow or Green. Follow those directions as they will, in theory, lead you to the parking areas closest to your zone and viewing point.
The earlier you arrive the closer you’ll be able to park to the circuit. The later you leave it the further away you’ll be. If you arrive before 8.00am on Friday & Saturday and before 7.15am on Sunday you should be able to get in one of the closer parking areas.
Bear in mind that the closer you park to the circuit when you arrive the longer it will take you leave at the end of the day. From most of these official car parks, if you leave at peak time at the end of qualifying or the race, you can expect it to take up to an hour to leave your parking area.
My suggestion would be to plan to stick around after the race – enjoy the fan zone, get some food and drinks, enjoy the evening and let the worst of the traffic leave before you do.
Paid Parking
If you want to be guaranteed parking closer to the circuit you can pay extra. This year it costs 140 Euros per day to get a space in the P4 car park, and you need to buy that in advance online.
If you’re in Start – Ziel, Steiermark, Red Bull, T9 or T10 stands this carpark could be wortwhile as it’s only a 5 minute walk to the main entrance which is close to those grandstands. But the other grandstands are still a long way around the other side of the track and will involve some serious walking, negating the benefit of parking closer.
To get to the P4 parking zone you need to follow signs to the VIP Parking Areas. The map below shows some directions:
Motorbike parking
There’s a dedicated motorbike parking area near to the P4 parking zone which is free all weekend.
There’s also storage lockers available in this motorbike parking area. It costs 15 Euros per day or 35 Euros per weekend and is the perfect place to store your helmet and leathers.
The storage lockers are available at the following times across the weekend:
- Thursday: 12:00 to 20:00
- Friday: 07:30 to 22:00
- Saturday: 07:30 to 22:00
- Sunday: 06:30 to 18:00
Shuttle bus drop-off
If you’re getting a shuttle bus service to the circuit these will drop off in the PBus parking area near Gate D. See my guide on getting to the Red Bull Ring for more info on the bus services.
Toll roads
Depending where you’re driving from it’s likely you’ll end up using one of Austria’s toll roads. To avoid delays at the toll booths it’s easiest to pre-pay for these before you arrive.
You can use the route planner on the official Austrian motorway network’s website here. Put your start destination in and the Red Bull Ring in as your end. That will tell you if you need a vignette or toll, and then you can pre-pay online.
Circuit pedestrian shuttles
Some of the grandstands are quite a long way from most parking areas, like the T3 grandstand. If the idea of having to walk for ages to get to your stand doesn’t fill you with joy, there are some shuttle buses that run between the different entrance gates at the circuit.
So if you’ve ended up parking in an area near the main entrance but your grandstand is the opposite side of the circuit near another entrance, you should walk to the main entrance (Gates A or B) and try and pick up the shuttle to take you to another entrance gate. If you’re in the T3 stand then you’d want to go to Gate D, for example.
These shuttles are free and operate from the entrance gates.
