{"id":550294,"date":"2026-03-19T09:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T09:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/550294\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T09:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T09:51:08","slug":"adelaide-was-pitched-as-shock-f1-stand-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/550294\/","title":{"rendered":"Adelaide was pitched as shock F1 stand-in"},"content":{"rendered":"

(GMM) South Australia\u2019s premier Peter Malinauskas (pictured) has revealed he made a bold pitch to Formula 1 to bring a race back to the streets of Adelaide following the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian grands prix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Malinauskas, who recently confirmed a deal with Liberty Media-owned MotoGP<\/a> to bring international racing back to the capital, said he personally contacted F1\u2019s CEO as soon as the escalating conflict in the Middle East forced the axing of the April events.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reached out to Stefano Domenicali,\u201d he told Triple M.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working on this a little bit for a while, and when the events got cancelled because of the Iran war, I was straight on the phone to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as it became obvious they were not going to be racing in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, I was like, \u2018Hello, this is an opportunity\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malinauskas said South Australia was ready to move quickly despite the enormous logistical hurdles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Listen, I\u2019ve got the team, they\u2019ve worked the numbers.’\u201d We can set the track up on these timelines,’\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Formula 1 ultimately declined the proposal, with organizers opting against any replacement races for April due to the short notice and the complexity of transporting teams and equipment back to Australia from Asia.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a near thing,\u201d revealed well-known broadcaster Eddie McGuire, who was with Domenicali when the call came in. \u201cHe did everything right. It\u2019s only in the end Formula 1 said no.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Adelaide street circuit also currently lacks FIA approval for a modern F1 race, adding another major obstacle to any last-minute return.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be in it to win it,\u201d Malinauskas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t putting it out there publicly \u2013 I rang them directly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Formula 1 has since confirmed there will be no additional races replacing Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, with support series including Formula 2 and F1 Academy also left without substitute events.<\/p>\n

However, the door may not be completely closed.<\/p>\n

According to Sport Bild, Formula 1 has not ruled out rescheduling the cancelled races later in the year, with one option being a tightly packed slot between the Azerbaijan and Singapore grands prix in late September and early October.<\/p>\n

Such a scenario would however present major logistical challenges, potentially requiring compressed race weekends or midweek events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(GMM) South Australia\u2019s premier Peter Malinauskas (pictured) has revealed he made a bold pitch to Formula 1 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-550294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}