Tag: Formula 1

2026 Formula 1 Calendar

For the 2026 race schedule we see one race gone, some important races moved, and add a new venue! But is it all good?

The 2026 Formula 1 season is soon upon us. It’ll be a really interesting season with new cars, new changes to the hybrid engines, new moveable aerodynamic devices, and new overtake boost rules replacing DRS.

For the 2026 race schedule we see one race gone, some important races moved, and add a new venue! But is it all good?

Get your Google Calendar for the 2026 F1 season right here!

Monaco’s Move

The biggest change in this year’s schedule is the movement of Monaco to June.

  • Montreal moves to 24th May, the Indy 500 date!
  • Monaco moves to 7th June.
  • Barcelona moves to 15th June, the weekend of the Le Mans 24 Hours!

If there are two big races in the world where clashes should be avoided, they are the Indy 500 and the Le Mans 24 Hours. My instinct is to deride the idea of putting a North American F1 race the same day. Let’s look more closely.

Indy 500: Usually Monaco ends a couple of hours before Indy starts. This year Indy runs first, Montreal will start just about when Indy ends. Literally minutes apart. It’ll be close, it’ll rely on no red flags or delays at Indy, not even a lot of Safety Car. But if all goes well only the pre-race and post-race coverage will clash. And that might prove perfectly fine for those at home, ignore the talking heads and just watch the racing.
The downside will be for North American media coverage, especially Canadians who will have to choose where to be.

Le Mans 24 Hours: There will be a direct clash. The 24 Hours usually finishes at 4pm CET. At the time of writing, Barcelona is due to start at 2pm CET. This is clearly not good. If it’s an exciting finish to Le Mans you’ll probably stay on that. If the race is decided in the early hours, you might switch, or second screen F1. Many people will prioritise F1. But let’s be frank, as much as I love Spain, the Barcelona GP is rarely action-packed. It’s often a snoozer. It should be quite easy to follow both races if you have access to both feeds.
Again, it’ll be a choice for those among European media who tend to cross over.

My problem is with the oxygen of publicity and airtime. F1 has a tendency to overwhelm everything else. The Indy 500 and Le Mans 24 Hours deserve to be the biggest stories of their respective weekends. That’s why I’m pleased Monaco is on a weekend where it can be the sole focus (with apologies to IndyCar at Gateway which follows it). It’s the addition of Montreal to that weekend that I don’t like.

But again, with all due respect to the importance and history of the Montreal and Barcelona races, they are not Monaco, or Indy, or Le Mans. This year I wonder if the prestige of Indy and Le Mans might carry their own weight against ‘regular season’ F1 GPs. I have a feeling that will be the case, at least among the fans.

Week To Week

The season starts a week earlier than last year and finishes in the same week.

Last year there was a triple-header in the first three weeks of April. This year, Suzuka moves a week earlier and there’s a week off before the Bahrain-Jeddah desert swing. Easter weekend is left clear.

The changes in May mean last year’s packed month, Miami followed by a triple-header of Imola-Monaco-Barcelona, looks very different. This year we still have Miami to open the month but the only other race in May is Montreal.

Obviously, in logistical terms it makes a lot of sense for Montreal to follow Miami. I just don’t know why it can’t be on one of the free weeks either side.

Most of the rest of the year follows a similar pattern to 2025.

It’s a tough end to the season. COTA, Mexico City, Interlagos run over three weeks, then there’s just a weekend off, before the Las Vegas, Qatar, Abu Dhabi triple.

We had this two years ago, but with two weekends off in between. Last year, there was a week off either side of Interlagos. Both years, everyone in the paddock looked absolutely shattered. They were pushed too far. This year is going to be even harder.

The 12-hour change from Las Vegas to Lusail is particularly brutal and I don’t understand it. I get why LV can’t be moved, you have to fit with the demands of a busy city, but I don’t understand why Lusail has to be the week after.

If we have to have Lusail, and I don’t know why we do because it is a terrible race and an awful way to end the year, could we not move it to join the Bahrain-Saudi races in March? We should really do the same with Abu Dhabi. This would give us races grouped by region, which would be great for travel plans and logistics. As fans you might even try to do as many as possible. But, Abu Dhabi pays a fortune to be the season-closer and that’s important money to F1.

New Venue

The title of the Spanish GP moves to the new street race around a convention centre in Madrid. A track called the MADRING – yes ALL CAPS! On the face of it the layout doesn’t look good, and the location doesn’t sound appealing, but it can be so hard to tell from a map. I hope it’s a better race than my expectations of it so far. I will keep an open mind. This will be the week after the Italian GP at Monza.

The old Spanish GP venue will now host a race called the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. In future years this will alternate with the Belgian GP at Spa. I have big concerns about this. When it was tried by the German GP it never worked. And so it collapsed. There were other reasons of course, including Schumacher’s retirement. But I fear the same will happen here to both races.

One sad bit of news is that 2026 sees the last Dutch GP for the foreseeable future. A shame. The changes to Zandvoort were brilliant and I love to see such a big excitable crowd there. The Dutch love a party and the energy coming through the TV screen surpasses anywhere else. Even if it means having to listen to bad techno.

We have also lost the Imola race which does not return this year. This is a shame, again the atmosphere there is brilliant and is sometimes worth the race itself perhaps not being quite as good as some others. Who doesn’t love Northern Italy in the Spring?

Sprint Races

The sprints at Spa, COTA and Qatar are gone.

Montreal, Silverstone and Singapore will host their first F1 Sprints. These join Shanghai and Miami which retain theirs from last year.

I think Montreal and Silverstone will work well. I am not so sure about Singapore, I have a feeling everyone will worry about trashing the cars so will play it safe.

There Are Too Many Races

I’ve always argued for quality over quantity. 17 or 18 races, that ballpark felt right. If you want to watch more than that get interested in other championships!

Start with F2 & F3. Move into IndyCar. Sportscars. MotoGP. Touring cars. There’s a world of other motorsport to get into. F1 is the gateway drug. The trouble is, with 24 weeks out of 52 devoted to F1, where’s the time for anything else?

Now we have 24 Grands Prix plus 6 sprints and it’s overwhelming. There is a Grand Prix on 46% of the weekends this year. How are we to have the time to watch other series, never mind hold other interests in our lives?

With six races in seven weeks to end the season, everyone in the paddock looks exhausted and I feel tired just watching it. It ends too late. Personally I would drop Lusail, Miami, Barcelona, Jeddah. These events would not be missed.

F1 should end in mid-November at the latest. The weekend currently occupied by Interlagos is perfect, and what a race to end on that would be.

Let’s keep the good venues and make them great events.

2026 F1 Calendar

You can add the 2026 F1 schedule to your calendars here!

DateRaceLocationComment
8 MarchAustralian Grand PrixAlbert Park
14 MarchShanghai SprintShanghai International Circuit
15 MarchChinese Grand PrixShanghai International Circuit
29 MarchJapanese Grand PrixSuzuka Circuit
12 AprilBahrain Grand PrixBahrain International Circuit
19 AprilSaudi Arabian Grand PrixJeddah Corniche Circuit
2 MayMiami SprintMiami International Autodrome
3 MayMiami Grand PrixMiami International Autodrome
23 MayMontreal SprintCircuit Gilles VilleneuveSprint added
24 MayGrand Prix du CanadaCircuit Gilles VilleneuveMoved from June
7 JuneGrand Prix de MonacoMonacoMoved from May
14 JuneGran Premio de Barcelona-CatalunyaCircuit de Barcelona-CatalunyaMoved from May, name changed
28 JuneGrosser Preis von ÖsterreichRed Bull Ring
4 JulySilverstone SprintSilverstone CircuitSprint added
5 JulyBritish Grand PrixSilverstone Circuit
19 JulyBelgian Grand PrixSpa-FrancorchampsNo sprint
26 JulyHungarian Grand PrixHungaroring
22 AugustZandvoort SprintCircuit ZandvoortSprint added
23 AugustDutch Grand PrixCircuit Zandvoort
6 SeptemberGran Premio d’ItaliaAutodromo Nazionale Monza
13 SeptemberGran Premio de EspañaCircuito de MADRINGNew track!
26 SeptemberAzerbaijan Grand PrixBaku City Circuit
10 OctoberSingapore SprintMarina Bay CircuitSprint added
11 OctoberSingapore Grand PrixMarina Bay Circuit
25 OctoberUnited States Grand PrixCircuit of the AmericasNo sprint
1 NovemberGran Premio de la Cuidad de MéxicoAutodromo Hermanos Rodriguez (Mexico City)
8 NovemberGrande Prêmio de São PauloAutodromo Carlos Pace (Interlagos)No sprint
21 NovemberLas Vegas Grand PrixLas Vegas Strip Circuit
29 NovemberQatar Grand PrixLusail International CircuitNo sprint
6 DecemberAbu Dhabi Grand PrixYas Marina Circuit

Races Watched 2025

At the beginning of 2024 I started to log all the races I watched. Now with two years of data I wanted to see what the numbers look like. Spotify Wrapped has a lot to answer for.

I wish I’d started doing this years ago. I’d love to know how the numbers compare to 2008 through to the early 2010s. I started this blog in ’08 and I watched a heck of a lot of races in those years. I used to post weekly reviews of what I was watching at the time, but never collated it.

There are people I follow online who watch more than me, and who should take the title of ‘I Watch Too Much Racing’. Shout out to Matt White, who inspired me to start tracking, as he posts all his races to socials – and got over 750 in ’25!

Races

In 2024 (blue) I had a big push in the spring but then felt burned out. It almost felt a chore to keep up and I kept things to a bare minimum, just F1 and IndyCar, with a couple of IMSA races to round out December.

2025 (orange) was the opposite. I never got started until February, then in the spring we had bad news in the family, obviously I placed my attention there rather than watch anything. When I decided to start up again I caught up all the F1 and IndyCar and also picked up my project to watch the 2024 BTCC.

That meant I caught up fast, so by August it became the game to try to beat 2024’s total by December. I made it by just two: 134 to 132

I actually felt better about it as well, not so burned out. I was still sick of F1 by the end of November, even with a brilliant title fight to enjoy.

Continue reading “Races Watched 2025”

Races Watched (2019 Week 13): F1 Bahrain

Week 13:  25-31 March 2019

Formula 1 – R2 – Bahrain Grand Prix

Okay I admit this was a fun race. I really wasn’t expecting it to be this good!

DRS & Overtaking

The addition of a 3rd DRS zone left me assuming it would be filled with simple push-button-to-pass overtakes down the main straight and those did happen, too many times.

But for the most part the strategy worked. The DRS zone at start/finish often brought a following car alongside the car in front leaving the drivers to sort it out at turn 1. If they swapped places, the passed car got DRS on the very next straight, giving an opportunity to get the place back. That worked really well. I like it when the chances are fair. Sometimes he got his place back, sometimes he didn’t, and often the cars were side by side into the next corner.

And that meant the opening 10 laps or so were fantastic! Drivers were able to stay with each other and attack each other yet still leaving it in the hands of the drivers to hit the apex first.

It worked less well when a trailing driver used DRS to get behind a car, then got another DRS activation on the next straight and sailed on past. Although, you could argue the trailing driver was being smarter and using the zones to his advantage, deliberately waiting for the second activation to prevent himself being passed back.

So I concede that DRS can improve the racing. The big caveat? I’d still prefer technical regulations allowing cars to race closely without needing a flappy wing to get them close. There is hope in the 2021 proposals. In the meantime, stick with the consecutive activations so each driver gets a fair use, or better still, simply let anyone in the zone use it.

Team by Team

Charles Leclerc was a revelation. Topped the times all weekend, seemingly laying down an early marker against Sebastian Vettel, yet never in a negative, combative way. Open, friendly, welcoming, taking it all in his stride as if he didn’t feel pressure. Until lap 47. A cylinder failed, initially reported as MGU-H, and he started to panic as he lost a comfortable lead and gradually dropped to 3rd. To be honest he was lucky the car was still running at all and lucky the Safety Car came out with 3 laps to go, which protected his podium finish from Verstappen. He kept his head in the end and brought the car home.

Was it the sign of a championship challenge? Of course not. Not yet. It was simply a good performance in a single weekend. Vettel might yet dominate the rest of the season. It did show Leclerc’s potential, showed he didn’t need time to settle in, showed that Ferrari had made the correct decision on drivers.

Vettel himself was very close to Leclerc on pace but he got boxed in on strategy midrace, falling to 3rd behind Hamilton. He was still quicker though, but when he tried to race his way through, he spun. Ferrari couldn’t believe it. I don’t think anybody could believe that again he spun the car in wheel-to-wheel racing. But it probably wasn’t his fault.

There were severe gusts of wind all day, the pre-race coverage from Sky really showed it, even if the in-race coverage from FOM probably didn’t. As Vettel crossed Hamilton’s car’s airflow and unsettled his own car it wouldn’t surprise me if he also caught one of those strong gusts.

The Mercedes weren’t quite there but had enough to fight the Ferraris in the early laps, Hamilton was close enough to catch Leclerc. Unfortunately the All New 2019 Bottas reverted back to 2018 Bottas and by lap 45 was some 15-20 seconds behind Hamilton.

Red Bull were in no-mans land. Well, Verstappen was. Gasly again mired in the field after another poor qualifying effort. At least he recovered to 8th, but that would’ve been 10th had it not been for Renault.

Renault in the closing stages were running 6th and 7th even though they ran divergent strategies, Ricciardo stayed out long, even leading for a bit, it didn’t work in the end, Hulkenberg who started near the back had got ahead of him. But then both retired on the spot at Turn 1 at the same time! Both with car problems, either mechanical or electrical. I’ve never seen that before, both team cars out in the same place with unrelated problems within seconds of each other. They’ll be back but these points were vital.

Something Lando Norris knows. He had a great day. Fell back early then raced his way through, putting solid moves on the likes of Kimi Raikkonen. 8th became 6th when the Renaults went out. A much better showing of speed for McLaren. Lots of potential at McLaren this year. They aren’t quite with the works team on speed, but they might beat them if they finish more races and are definitely hugely better than last year. Sainz suffered damage early, needed a new wing and ran at the back until retiring late on.

Alexander Albon also impressed with some good speed and overtakes including on Kvyat who’d otherwise done a decent job before being shunted into by Giovanazzi, who didn’t get a penalty for it for some reason.

Alfa Romeo had Raikkonen up there and he fought back after pit stops dropped him down. Giovanazzi as above hit Kvyat, other than that I don’t remember seeing him.

Haas qualified well but Magnussen had no race pace at all and Grosjean had damage by turn 2 of lap 1 after contact.

I didn’t see a lot of Racing Point other than Stroll’s car getting damaged in the contact with Grosjean, sparks everywhere. With a new front wing he still caught and passed the Williams pair but had no hope of more. I don’t think I saw Perez all race, he inherited the final point when the Renaults went out.

Williams again at the back. Kubica started on the mediums (everyone else on softs) yet I noticed he pitted first, perhaps he had a slow puncture? He and Russell raced each other all day. Positively, both cars finished the race and right now mileage and race finishes are the most important thing.

Points

Just the point for Fastest Lap in Melbourne keeps Bottas ahead of Hamilton. Verstappen sits a lucky third. The Ferraris surely retain a speed advantage into the next round at Shanghai and should close the points gap. There’s a very long way to go yet in 2019.

The rest of the field is tight as anything. Early season reliability trouble is having an effect. It has long been a truism of F1 that you can’t throw away points in the early races to poor reliability, they’re worth just as much as the season-closing races.

BAH TOTAL Driver Team
18 44 Valterri Bottas Mercedes
25 43 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
12 27 Max Verstappen Red Bull
16 FL 26 Charles Leclerc Ferrari
10 22 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari
6 10 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo
8 Kevin Magnussen Haas
8 8 Lando Norris McLaren
6 Nico Hulkenberg Renault
4 4 Pierre Gasly Red Bull
2 Lance Stroll Racing Point
2 2 Alexander Albon Toro Rosso
1 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso
1 1 Sergio Perez Racing Point

A lucky break for Mercedes but I think this just gives them a temporary advantage. Ferrari will be quicker at fast, open tracks which make up the bulk of the calendar.

BAH TOTAL Constructor
43 87 Mercedes
26 48 Ferrari
16 31 Red Bull Honda
6 10 Alfa Romeo Ferrari
8 Haas Ferrari
8 8 McLaren Renault
6 Renault
1 3 Racing Point Mercedes
2 3 Toro Rosso Honda
Williams Mercedes

Catch-Up

Nothing!

With the previous week off work (watching all that MotoGP), last week I was very busy and never got around to catching up with anything in the evenings. Over the weekend I was getting jobs done and visiting family for Mother’s Day.

Next Week

1st to 7th April

IndyCar is at Barber Motorsports Park. I need to watch the first two rounds and hope to do that by then, next week’s post may be an IndyCar Special. It helps that UK and US are back in sync with DST. Unlike the previous race I can actually get home for it.

This is likely to be the only live race I’ll see this weekend. I’m at an astronomy course on Saturday, then o Sunday I’m probably helping to put up a fence!

Your other viewing options include:

  • BTCC Brands Hatch on ITV4. I considered actually going to this one but other plans have cropped up, there are plenty of other chances though.
  • WTCR Marrakesh on both Eurosport and, amazingly enough, the BBC Red Button. Of all the series. Plenty of UK interest with Shedden, Huff and Priaulx.
  • World SBK at Aragon.
  • Supercars Australia in Tasmania.
  • Blancpain GT Asia at Sepang.

Races Watched (2019 Week 11): Hong Kong, Melbourne & MotoGP

A comment on some of the races I’ve been watching. A return to an occasional and hopefully now regular series with the Calendars all updated.

I usually catch one or two live races per weekend and spend time in the week catching up on other things. This time I didn’t see anything live – I had other plans – but I did focus on two events. I’ll be catching up with “Super Sebring” WEC & IMSA another time.

Week 11:  11-17 March 2019

Formula E – R5 – Hong Kong ePrix

A lot of cars in a narrow, tight space led to contact and red flags and safety cars. It wasn’t the cleanest race in the world.

At least it was close for the race lead. Bird and Lotterer went flat out all the way. Bird made a lot of stout attacks, Lotterer repelled them with a lot of stout defences. For the most part this was close, hard street racing. Possibly an argument that FE ought to have been a silhouette touring car series so they could have a bit of contact! These two were the class of the field and pulled away from the rest.

Sadly right near the end there was contact between them, which put Lotterer out. He was angry, he was right to be angry. He even dragged the damage car around until it went no further. There was obviously no malice involved, Bird didn’t plan to drive Lotterer out of the race, he just misjudged his braking – or his aim – and his car’s nose punctured Lotterer’s tyre. It was marginal, very marginal. But he took out the race leader and that’s a penalty. Sure enough, though it took several hours, Bird was later penalised enough time to lose the win.

That gave the win to street-specialist Edo Mortara, which leaves him tied with Lucas di Grassi for 3rd in points with the top four covered by 2 points. It also gave the Venturi team their first ever FE win.

Must mention Oliver Rowland who took the lead at the start and was fast until he hit the FCY limiter button accidentally around the tight hairpin, losing him many places.

A heck of a lot else happened, a mix of contact retirements and good old-fashioned reliability problems knocked some out of the race too. Some tight battles at the hairpin. I don’t have space to mention it all.

Attack Mode didn’t seem to do anything at this track, perhaps drivers lost a lot of time activating it.

Next up is a new race in Sanya, China on 23rd March. You’ll have seen it by the time this piece is published.

Highlights are embedded above or you can watch the full race HERE on YouTube.

Points Car Name Team
54 2 Sam Bird Virgin
53 64 Jerome d’Ambrosio Mahindra
52 11 Lucas di Grassi Audi Sport
52 48 Eduardo Mortara Venturi
47 28 Ant Felix da Costa BMW Andretti
43 4 Robin Frijns Virgin
34 66 Daniel Abt Audi Sport
34 20 Mitch Evans Jaguar
30 94 Pascal Wehrlein Mahindra
29 36 Andre Lotterer DS Techeetah

Formula 1 – R1 – Australian GP

As ever a promising build-up lead to a slightly underwhelming Australian Grand Prix. The track just isn’t very good for close racing with cars this fast. At least it was better than the turgid ‘race’ served up last year. The atmosphere looked as good as ever though and it seems a great relaxed place for a season opener.

Okay it was mostly because Giovanazzi stayed out on worn tyres too long, but passes were made. Like I said in the F1 Preview the middle of the pack is going to be something special this year, especially when we get to more open tracks. Norris in particular had a good debut though not the end result to show for it.

And Kvyat really showed up an underperforming Gasly, who shouldn’t have failed to make it out of Q1 qualifying thus totally screwing up his Sunday, at a track where you can hardly pass.

Bottas really laid down a marker, taking Hamilton at the first corner and going on to dominate the race. There was damage to Hamilton’s floor. But I got the feeling Hamilton, being older and wiser these days, decided to bank the points for 2nd. He still beat Vettel and Verstappen and he knows – he thinks – he can handle Bottas later. I also think this is the case, but I also think Bottas won’t quite be the pushover of last year.

Ricciardo screwed his day by driving on the grass and hitting an access road, very unlucky that was there, he’d probably have got away with it otherwise. I’m sure if he’d held to the edge of the tarmac Perez would’ve given him space but it’s all very tight.

I was surprised how seriously the teams took the new point for Fastest Lap. I thought the drivers would like it and the teams would reign them in, but Mercedes encouraged Bottas to go for it while leading. Interesting!

Summary:  Decent first third of the race, then fizzled out as the midfield traffic got in a line and couldn’t race, then it got a bit boring.

On to Bahrain on 31st March. It should be more representative for the rest of the year, both in pace and race-ability of the 2019 cars.

Points Car Driver Team
26 77 Valterri Bottas Mercedes
18 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
15 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull
12 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari
10 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari
8 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas
6 27 Nico Hulkenberg Renault
4 7 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo
2 18 Lance Stroll Racing Point
1 26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso

Catch-Up

MotoGP

I’ve been been binge-watching recordings of last year’s MotoGP. I did a terrible job keeping up with it. After Jerez I stopped. I’m not sure why, since it is one of my favourite series. Maybe just overwhelmed with live stuff.

Anyway I made the choice to drop BT TV in favour of Sky (see my previous post), partly because I wasn’t using it to watch MotoGP live any more, which means I need to delete everything on my BT Youview box before Monday 25th March.

Of course after I made that decision the highlights rights got moved. Instead of BT Sport’s excellent highlights on Channel 5, we now get generic Dorna highlights on Quest. I haven’t seen it yet but reports suggest it isn’t as good. I have feelings of regret. However there is talk of a BT Sport deal on Sky coming this summer.

Due to the box filling up – the stupid series link recorded endless hours of free practice and started deleting old stuff and I didn’t notice – I had to go to the YouTube highlights for Le Mans, Mugello and Catalunya.

During this week I watched the following:

Assen, Sachsenring, Brno, Spielberg.

Assen’s Dutch GP (July) was magic, such a great race, really close all the way between Lorenzo and Marquez and then Rossi and Dovizioso rode their way through and Rins got in there too. This lot battling was just outstanding.

Sachsenring’s German GP (July) a bit less interesting, Dovi dropped back leaving Marquez to win with a gap over Rossi and Vinales, a slightly better result for Yamaha this time.

Brno’s Czech GP (August) was all about saving your tyres until the last few laps. That meant a big group circulated together but they weren’t going flat out, although it still looked pretty quick to me. When they pulled the pin it was Dovizioso on the Ducati and Marquez on the Honda, with Lorenzo on Ducati close behind, who made the gap. It would be Dovi, Lorenzo, Marquez to give the red team their second 1-2 of the year, Dovi’s 2nd win.

Spielberg’s Austrian GP (August) had a fun start with a big pack. Marquez pulled into a lead with the Ducatis chasing. This is a power track and the Ducatis have it, but the Honda isn’t far off. The was a duel. Marquez and Lorenzo trading blows with Dovi not able to stay with them. Another outstanding battle! Lorenzo took his 3rd win of the year.

And of course Silverstone (August) was cancelled due to torrential rain and a track that didn’t clear water.

Check out these short highlights videos. They aren’t like the F1 and FE videos, they don’t cover as much on track and the edits are a bit jarring, but if racing is most of all about the people, these clips get that across really well.

Next Week

Monday 18th to Sunday 24th March, I’ll be watching the rest of last year’s MotoGP and the Sanya E-Prix.

My plan is to publish these weekly recaps every Tuesday so you can expect this on the 26th, but they may jump around until I find the right day.