Every session start time for F1 2026

The 2026 Formula 1 season start times have been unveiled with the Canadian Grand Prix race start pushed back to avoid a direct clash with the Indianapolis 500.

In conjunction with F1 revealing its six sprint race venues for next season, the start times for every session in 2026 have been released.

The only change is a later start time for the Canadian GP, which in previous years has started at 2pm local time on the Sunday of the Montreal event, but for 2026 will start at 4pm local time.

This change is aimed at avoiding a direct clash with the Indy 500 that is on the same weekend, after the Canadian GP was moved to an end-of-May calendar slot as part of F1’s regional grouping with its calendar.

The Indy 500 normally starts at 12:45pm local time (Indianapolis being on the same time zone as Montreal), which gives IndyCar’s blue riband event a window of just over three hours before the start of the F1’s Canadian GP. Both events are scheduled for 24 May 2026.

The start times also reconfirm that the 2026 F1 season will see two Saturday grands prix; the Las Vegas GP, which has run with a Saturday night race since 2023, while the Azerbaijan GP has been moved to a Saturday race day to avoid clashing with a national day of mourning on the Sunday.

Full F1 2026 local start times:

Date

Country

FP1

FP2

FP3

08/03

Australia

12:30

16:00

12:30

16:00

15:00

15/03

China

11:30

15:30 (SQ)

11:00 (S)

15:00

29/03

Japan

11:30

15:00

11:30

15:00

14:00

12/04

Bahrain

14:30

18:00

15:30

19:00

18:00

19/04

Saudi Arabia

16:30

20:00

16:30