The Chinese Grand Prix could open the 2027 season if the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian grands prix are postponed or delayed due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
The Bahrain and Saudi Arabian events, originally scheduled in April, were called off and eventually cancelled owing to the war, which began in February with American and Israeli strikes on Iran.
The Bahraini government is instead funding a one-off return of the Malaysian Grand Prix on the first weekend of October, to be known as the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
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The ongoing conflict has also plunged the season-closing Qatar and Abu Dhabi grands prix into doubt. Though Formula 1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali said at the weekend that he intended for the season to continue as scheduled, a call on whether those races can go ahead is due before the end of September.
If both are cancelled, the season is likely to end in Italy with the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on 6 December.
Formula 1 is believed to have delayed the announcement of its 2027 calendar until after a decision has been made on the final races of this season.
An end-September announcement would be the latest the calendar has been published since 2022, with the last three seasons all confirmed by the end of July.
Formula 1’s preference is to start the season on 14 March in Bahrain, which is contracted to host the opening race now that the dates of Ramadan have shifted to earlier in the year. As has been the case since 2022, Saudi Arabia would follow on the subsequent weekend.
A week’s break would follow before the Australian, Japanese and Chinese grands prix and three consecutive weekends.
The sport was previously thought to be set on announcing those dates regardless of the conflict, albeit with the intention of revisiting the situation in January and shuffling the calendar
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But according to The Race, Formula 1 will pre-emptively adjust the calendar before announcing it.
If the conflict remains unresolved, China would be the favourite to open the season by being pulled forward to the start of the schedule.
Japan would follow on the subsequent weekend, with Australia remaining third on the calendar as either a stand-alone race or tacked on to the end of the China-Japan double-header.
The Australian Grand Prix is provisionally set for 4 April. Race organisers are deeply unlikely to consent to bringing the race forward by one week as the preceding weekend is Easter, and it would be logistically difficult for the event to move earlier into March given the ongoing construction of a new pit building.
Whether Australia forms the end of a triple-header would therefore likely depend on how early the Chinese and Japanese grands prix could be moved into March.
April would then be left available for Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to slot into, similar to this year.
Other races could be moved into that gap instead, though the following rounds would be the Miami and Canadian grands prix in May, and the organisers of both events have been historically reluctant to shift dates.
European races might instead be moved forward to create a later opening for the Middle Eastern rounds, though both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah experience stiflingly hot mid-year temperatures — similar conditions to those that caused a health hazard at the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix.
Further changes can’t be ruled out if the conflict continues, with Formula 1 determined to host a 24-round championship next season.
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HADJAR CONSULTED MÁRQUEZ OVER HAND INJURY COMEBACK
Seven-time MotoGP champion Marc Márquez has revealed injured Red Bull Racing star Isack Hadjar consulted him for advice on returning to competition.
Hadjar fractured his hand in a training accident leading up to the Dutch Grand Prix and subsequently sat out the race.
Liam Lawson was temporarily promoted from Racing Bulls to replace him, while Yuki Tsunoda was recalled from the bench to substitute for Lawson.
Hadjar had reportedly been keen to race regardless, though team principal Laurent Mekies encouraged him to recover before returning to the cockpit.
But Márquez, a former Red Bull athlete, has confirmed he was also sought out for advice.
Márquez’s glittering MotoGP career has been heavily interrupted by injury, the most serious of which was his broken arm at the opening race of the 2020 season in Jerez.
The Spaniard attempted to make his competitive comeback at the next round, just one week later and days after surgery to repair his right humerus, infamously completing 20 decline push-ups to prove his fitness.
But he withdrew from the round in pain and didn’t race again for the rest of the year, after requiring further surgery to repair a broken plate in his arm, and a bone graft was required at the end of the year.
He continued feeling the effects of the injury for years, at first due to a lack of strength in his right arm. In 2022 he went under the knife again to break and reset the arm after the bone was discovered to have healed 30 degrees out of rotation.
It took him until 2025 to win another championship, albeit thanks in part to Honda’s competitive decline during his struggles.
Speaking to the MotoGP website, Márquez said he cautioned Hadjar against rushing back to the cockpit based on his own experience.
“Hadjar contacted me,” he said. “I’m not a doctor, of course, but just for advice.
“Because sometimes for a rider, or a driver in this case, it’s super difficult because sometimes you feel that okay, maybe you can.
“But it’s difficult to accept that, ‘Okay, I will skip this race and I will prepare myself in a better way for the next one’.
“It’s just what I said. I learned in the past that missing one race will not change your life. Worsening your injury because you ride too early can change your life.
“My life changed a lot since the Jerez injury, so I just tried to give that advice to Hadjar, and I think he took the correct decision, because he has a long career in front [of him].”
Red Bull Racing anticipates that Hadjar will be fit to race at next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix but has yet to commit to his return.
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RED BULL DENIED ENGINE UPGRADE
Red Bull Powertrains has been deemed to have the best internal combustion engine by the FIA for a second time this season, banning the marque from upgrades until at least next year.
This year’s complex new power unit rules contain an equalisation clause — additional development and upgrade opportunities, or ADUO — that doles out upgrades based on how far adrift each engine is from the benchmark motor.
Despite almost 50 per cent of total power output being electrical from the hybrid motor, the rules measure only petrol power in deciding the competitive order.
The FIA has said it would have preferred a more complex formula that involved the hybrid motor but that the engine manufacturers agreed to the simpler combustion-only metric.
The first measurement period, running to the end of the Canadian Grand Prix, determined the Red Bull internal combustion engine to be the most powerful.
Despite having by consensus the best overall power unit, Mercedes’s combustion motor was judged to be between 2 per cent and 4 per cent down on power, and the marque was granted one upgrade for 2025 and another for 2026.
Ferrari, Audi and Honda were all found to be 4 per cent or more behind Red Bull, and each was given two upgrades this year and again next year.
Both categories also received cost cap concessions.
The second ADUO period concluded after the Hungarian Grand Prix, during which time both Ferrari and Audi brought their first upgrades.
However, the FIA confirmed this week that there would be no change to engine upgrade concessions, leaving Red Bull Powertrains as the only manufacturer without an update chance.
Though the governing body did not confirm whether there had been any changes to the competitive order, reports suggest Red Bull Powertrains was again judged to have the most powerful combustion engine.
Ferrari is due to bring a significant upgrade as soon as next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, which could alter the picture.
However, the next ADUO period runs until after the United States Grand Prix in late October. Given how late in the season it is, Red Bull Powertrains would be unlikely to have time to bring a substantive upgrade even if it were to be granted a concession.
All teams are allowed to make some tightly defined engine upgrades from season to season, though they are much smaller in scale compared to what is allowed with an ADUO concession.
The FIA says its measurement system is “very accurate” but is open to changing its scope, though it would require the agreement of all power unit manufacturers.