Formula 1’s first race back at Sepang in almost a decade will produce a very different kind of race from anything we saw at the 19 Malaysian Grand Prix held there so far.
It was a highly popular choice among drivers and teams when it was chosen to be slotted into the 2026 calendar as a replacement for the cancelled Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix.
Most drivers had already conducted simulator preparations for Sepang prior to the start of the Azerbaijan-Malaysia-Singapore triple header, so they had an early idea of what to expect before they arrived.
So much in F1 has changed since the last time the teams were there in 2017; it’s essentially been treated like a brand-new track.
Here are the early predictions of what to expect.
‘Chaotic racing’
There’s a mix of opinions on what the 2026 F1 cars will do to some of the pre-existing challenges of Sepang – and the new ones these cars will create.
How to tackle the likes of Silverstone, Spa and Monza has been completely redefined by this year’s cars, both in terms of what’s required for the perfect qualifying lap and the kind of racing they produce in the grand prix.
Williams’s predictions have Sepang around average in the energy management demands of 2026 circuits, somewhere around Canada and Austria.
World champion Lando Norris, who provided sim support for McLaren’s then-race drivers Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne for the last time F1 raced at Sepang in 2017, thinks the challenge of two of the best corners previously will be neutered.
“I remember going into the factory at midnight or whatever stupid time it was and driving until 7am in the morning just to support the guys then, so it’s not completely new to me, but it’ll be a first time going to the circuit itself, which is exciting,” Norris said.
“The only thing that’s not exciting is because you have no battery, the two high-speed corners that should be high-speed, you run out of battery and are easy flat, so that takes away a little bit of the character that I think you should have in such an incredible track.”
Those two high-speed corners are likely a reference to the sweeping left-right Turns 5/6 at the start of the second sector, and the left-right Turns 12/13 before the back straight.
Asked by The Race what the 2026 cars would do to Sepang’s challenging corners, Cadillac F1 driver Sergio Perez simply replied: “We’d better not talk about it.”
Norris expects the racing to be similar to Monza, with two long straights separated by the final hairpin giving plenty of potential for some yo-yo racing.
“I think [Sepang] will be pretty chaotic in terms of racing because of the straights and corners set-up that you have there,” Norris said.
“You’ll see in some ways a similar vibe to Monza.”
But not everyone is convinced overtaking will be as common as it was at Monza.
Valtteri Bottas thinks it will still be “quite tricky” while Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies said last weekend: “I think we have seen that one of the positives with this year’s regulation is that we do get opportunities to overtake at most tracks.
“So it may not be as favourable as [Baku], but even here it was tough in the race. So I think we’ll get good racing there as well.”
The circuit is set to have four straight mode zones; the start/finish straight, the back straight, the run out of Turn 3 to the Turn 4 right-hander and the run out of the Turn 8 right-hander.
‘A lot of unknowns’
One thing that certainly hasn’t changed about Sepang is the unpredictable weather. There’s the possibility of thunderstorms early in the weekend and it’s a good contender to finally produce F1 2026’s first properly rain-affected race.
Sepang’s humidity is also a big physical challenge for the drivers too and if that wasn’t enough, there are predictions of high tyre wear.
“I’ve done it on the sim and it looks like a pretty cool track. Very fast, flowing, long corners. Not easy, especially to put the lap together,” points leader Kimi Antonelli said.
“It’s going to be very interesting as well with tyre degradation. We might see two, three stops, because tyre deg is going to be big, but another question mark is going to be the weather.
“I’ve seen the forecast and it seems to rain pretty heavily at a certain time, at a specific time of the day. So, there’s going to be a lot of unknowns.
“Also, it’s going to be very, very hot. So, yeah, let’s see, but it’s going to be a good challenge, and I’m looking forward to it.”
Pirelli is bringing the C2-C3-C4 tyres to Sepang and it says “this choice is slightly more aggressive than the harder trio that would have represented a more conservative option given the characteristics of the circuit”.
The circuit is rated four out of five by Pirelli for ‘tyre stress’ and high rear surface overheating in the final sector means the C4s will only last for one-timed lap in qualifying.
Track resurfacing
The track was resurfaced after confirmation of its F1 return too, so it’s literally a very different circuit to the last time F1 raced there.
Pirelli says: “The overall characteristics of the surface, as assessed by its engineers just a few weeks ago, remain very similar to those recorded in 2017.
“More recently, from the beginning of September, additional surface levelling work was carried out to remove irregularities in the asphalt, alongside cleaning operations aimed at improving track conditions ahead of the world championship event.”
The Race’s Jon Noble has already walked the track and has found some very rough surfaces throughout. There’s only one support series (Formula 4 South East Asia) racing alongside F1 too so F1 drivers won’t get much help cleaning the track.
When Sepang was resurfaced in 2016 it proved controversial as the final hairpin was made into an off-camber corner that didn’t go down well with F1 drivers at the time.
Then rookie Esteban Ocon said the change made it a “boring challenge”, Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz called it “strange” while Renault’s Jolyon Palmer found it “annoying”.
Asked generally about going back to Sepang in 2026, Sainz revisited his frustration with that change.
“I really enjoyed driving it in the simulator, I think it’s a great racetrack [but] I don’t understand why they did this change to the last corner,” Sainz said.
“I don’t know if you remember but they banked – counter-banked – the last corner exactly a year [before] we left and I think it’s a terrible mistake because if anything that corner should be banked.
“There was this fashion at the time, you remember, Abu Dhabi was off-banking – and I don’t know why designers, track designers decided that we needed to do off-banking corners and for whatever reason they decided that that last corner in Sepang had to be off-camber, which is a bit of a shame but everything else about that track I love.”
‘Sick’ to drive or just ‘OK’?
Most drivers are pleased Sepang is back on the calendar regardless of how different it will be in 2026.
Only 10 of the 22 drivers have raced there in F1 before and many of those who haven’t have fond memories of watching races there in their childhood.
Having driven it on the simulator, Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto said: “It’s a pretty cool track. Lots of fast high speeds, that constant radius of the corners. It’s kind of sick.
“It looks like there’s a little bit of elevation out of some corners, so it becomes quite tricky on traction as well. So I liked it.”
Team-mate Nico Hulkenberg had an amusing contrary view to the gushing praise, saying “it’s OK” when asked how much he was looking forward to returning to Sepang.
“No, I mean it’s not that I dislike it,” he explained.
“It’s that even when we were there, early in my career, it was never like ‘wow, I’m so excited about this track’.
“It’s OK; it’s obviously got a few funny long leading corners, these late apexes; it’s a bit particular in that sense.
“It’s fine. Obviously I’m going to do my best and we want to do well there, and that’s the target. We’re always looking to maximise, but the track itself is not the most exciting.”
In contrast, three-time Malaysian Grand Prix winner Fernando Alonso called it “probably the nicest track” left on the 2026 calendar.