The 22nd Bahrain Grand Prix will be held roughly 6,000km from Bahrain. The race was due at Sakhir on 12 April, but it and the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix were scrapped after the outbreak of war with Iran made the Gulf unsafe for Formula 1. On 26 July, F1 and the FIA confirmed an agreement with the governments of Bahrain and Malaysia: the event would be revived at the Sepang International Circuit from 2–4 October, running as the “Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia” and slotting in as round 16 between Baku and Singapore.
Who pays
Bahrain keeps its race, and it keeps the bill. According to Sepang International Circuit CEO Azhan Shafriman Hanif, Bahrain is covering the F1 hosting fee, estimated at US$70–80 million. It also keeps all ticket revenue and sets ticket prices. Malaysia’s cost depends on who you ask. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim put it at RM16 million in track preparation. The circuit puts Malaysia’s share of local operating and preparation costs closer to RM40 million. Either figure is small next to the roughly RM300 million a year Malaysia estimates it would cost to run its own Grand Prix. That cost, along with falling ticket sales, is what pushed Sepang off the calendar after 2017.
What’s changed at Sepang
The 5.543km Hermann Tilke layout is the same one Formula 1 left behind. Sections were resurfaced in 2023, and more levelling work began in early September, but Pirelli says the surface behaves much like it did in 2017: abrasive, with little grip on Friday. The bigger change is the cars. In 2017 they ran on 13-inch wheels; the 2026 cars run on 18-inch rims and use active aerodynamics. The FIA has confirmed four Straight Mode zones: the start/finish straight, the back straight, the run out of Turn 3 and the run out of Turn 8. Pirelli is bringing the C2, C3 and C4 compounds, one step softer than the conservative choice.
Meanwhile, since 2017…
- Max Verstappen won the last race here, the day after his 20th birthday. He has since won four world titles.
- Championship leader Kimi Antonelli was 11 years old.
- Lewis Hamilton added three more titles and swapped silver for red.
- The halo arrived and made believers of its critics.
- Drive to Survive turned the paddock into a cast list.
- DRS came and went.
- Lando Norris became world champion, which some people still haven’t come to terms with.
The weekend: bring an umbrella, and maybe a calculator
Forecasts disagree. Friday is the most likely day for rain, with a 60–81% chance depending on the provider. Qualifying looks drier. For Sunday, estimates range from 30% to around 50% at lights out to 90%.
Formula 4 South East Asia is the only support series, so there will be little rubber laid down. This could also be the first properly wet running for the 2026 cars, which would mean energy management on a wet track in a humid 35°C-plus heat index. Sepang has history here: the 2009 race was red-flagged in a downpour and awarded half points..
The title fight
Antonelli leads Russell by 66 points, 302 to 236, with eight rounds left including this one. Russell’s recent run has been his best of the year:
- Monza: second, after a split-strategy call under the Virtual Safety Car handed the win to Antonelli.
- Madrid: fifth, which pushed the gap out to 81 points.
- Baku: pole position, then held off Verstappen by 0.196s for his third win of the season.
The momentum is real. The maths still favours the driver with eight wins.
McLaren’s pace is better than its points suggest. The team won in Hungary and Zandvoort, and at Monza Russell called them the team to beat. In Madrid, Norris was leading until the timing of the VSC and a slow stop dropped him to third. Baku was harder to explain. The upgrade package was held together with cable ties on Friday and the car was 1.4 seconds off the pace. By Saturday, Piastri had qualified third. He was running on the podium until he locked up at a restart and fell to 14th, and Norris was collected in the Alpine drivers’ collision. McLaren left with zero points.
Ferrari are second on 378 points but 160 behind Mercedes. Hamilton’s win in Barcelona remains the high point. Since then, Leclerc has taken fourth place twice while Hamilton has managed a brake failure and a sixth. Reports suggest even the latest power-unit upgrade hasn’t moved them forward. Fred Vasseur is contracted until the end of 2027, but PlanetF1, GPblog and Corriere della Sera all report that Ferrari’s leadership is planning his succession. Antonello Coletta, Jérôme d’Ambrosio and, inevitably, Christian Horner have been named. Ferrari has confirmed nothing.
The midfield
The midfield “battle” is really two separate fights
Racing Bulls lead Alpine by 15 points after Alpine’s drivers took each other out in Baku. Below that, Haas, Audi and Williams are separated by 15 points. In a rain-hit race, one lucky fourth place (12 points) would equal Williams’ entire season.
The verdict
Bahrain paid for it. Malaysia supplies the weather. None of the 22 drivers has raced this generation of car here, and half the grid has never raced here at all. Singapore is seven days later. Nobody should get comfortable.