Formula 1 revealed its 2026 Calendar earlier this week, ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix. The calendar did remain pretty consistent with years gone by. But there were some massive talking points to come out of the big reveal. Let’s dig into what those are and why they’ve caused such a kerfuffle in the motorsport world.
Formula 1 – 2026 Calendar
Formula 1 in 2026 will once again see the season start at the iconic Albert Park Street Circuit in Melbourne, Australia. This harks back to yesteryear of F1 was welcomed by fans everywhere. The reveal also came with the news that it would be the first part of a triple header including China and Japan.
Bahrain and Saudi follow this excursion with a double header in the Middle East before an interlude sees the F1 circus head state side for the first time as they go racing once again in Miami. But this is where the first road bump rears its head.
Formula 1 Vs IndyCar
Ever since the Miami Grand Prix debuted on the Formula 1 calendar, fans have been calling for the Canadian Grand Prix to be grouped alongside it. It didn’t make sense to go to Miami, fly to Europe for a couple of races and then back over to North America again. The 2026 calendar finally rectifies this. However, there’s now a three week break between Miami and Canada and crucially, the Canadian Grand Prix will fall on the same weekend, and time zone, as one of the biggest races in the world—the Indianapolis 500.
The obvious clash has come across to motorsport fans as either deliberate, naïve or foolish—none of which are especially good. It pits Formula 1 against IndyCar in a massive way when ordinarily, they’ve been able to compliment each other on the Indy 500 weekend. The Monaco Grand Prix would take place beforehand with the Indy 500 following it and a big NASCAR race, this year the Coca Cola 600, after that to conclude an epic day of racing. But this clash for 2026 has now left many with a bitter taste in their mouths and calls for F1 to rectify this move as soon as possible.
The Spanish Grand Prix
Formula 1 will return to Europe after this for the Monaco Grand Prix. Then comes the first of two Spanish Grand Prix in 2026. This will be the first time that there will be two Grand Prix in Spain since Barcelona and Valencia were both on the calendar back in 2012. The second of these will be the debut of the Madrid Grand Prix—a brand new street circuit that will also see Formula 2 and Formula 3 race on the same weekend in September, three months after the race in Barcelona.
The addition of Madrid onto the calendar also comes at the expense of the Imola Grand Prix—previously the second of two Grand Prix held in Ferrari’s homeland of Italy.
The End of Zandvoort
The European leg of the 2026 calendar sees Formula 1 racing again in Austria, Great Britain, Belgium, Hungary and Italy. There will also be a Grand Prix in the Netherlands, as there has been every year since 2021. But it will be a last hurrah for Zandvoort as they won’t be on the calendar in 2027. With that being the case, the organisers have decided to try and go out with a bang and have made their last Grand Prix on the F1 calendar a Sprint Weekend. With mixed weather conditions and limited overtaking opportunities often coming into play at Zandvoort, this could turn into a very interesting finale for the venue.
Uneven Pacing
Azerbaijan and Singapore follow the foray into Madrid. After this is a two week break before a triple header across Texas, Mexico and Brazil. Another two week break follows this before the final three races of the year, back to back to back, held in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
The pacing for the entire season both feels more balanced and more unhinged than in previous years – an impressive achievement. Not having the two American Grand Prix of Texas and Las Vegas closer to one another on the calendar seems a wasted opportunity and questions about the sanity of placing Las Vegas and Qatar back to back again remain unanswered.
Formula 2 – 2026 Calendar
Once again, Formula 2 will have a largely unchanged calendar. With the dropping of Imola from the Formula 1 calendar for 2026, Formula 2 naturally does the same and will instead race in Madrid.
With the addition of Madrid, Formula 2’s fourteen round Championship is perhaps the most consistent and well paced calendar that the series has ever had. Before, Formula 2 drivers, teams and fans would have to wait months between the race held in Monza and the season concluding rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Recently that’s been fixed somewhat by the addition of Baku to the F2 calendar. Now, with Madrid added into the mix, it feels like another step in the right direction.
That being said, there is somehow once again a two month gap between the round of racing in Baku and the start of the penultimate round in Qatar. Much like the F1 2026 calendar then, it’s a case of one step forward, two steps back.
Formula 3 – 2026 Calendar
Much like Formula 2, Formula 3’s 2026 calendar remains mostly unchanged from normal. However, in 2026, Formula 3 will hold its final race in Madrid instead of Monza—perhaps the most controversial change to the calendar since Formula 3 held its finale in Russia back in 2021.
With the exception of the opening two rounds in Australia and Bahrain, Formula 3 will race exclusively in Europe in 2026. The majority of the action will take place in June and July before the double header finale in September across Italy and Spain.
What about F1 Academy?
Upon the release of the 2026 calendars for F1, F2 and F3, there was one notable omission—F1 Academy. Where is their 2026 calendar? Put simply, we don’t know. The reasoning for this may be as simple as that it hasn’t been finalized yet. But when calendars for all three of the other racing series have been announced, it seems curious that there wasn’t a mention of F1 Academy.
From the process of elimination, some logical guesswork can be applied to where we are likely to see F1 Academy race in 2026. China, Japan, Miami, Canada, Singapore, Austin, Mexico, Brazil, Qatar and Abu Dhabi are the obvious candidates. We’ll have to wait a bit longer though before we see just how many of these make it onto the final 2026 calendar.
Final Thought
All in all, the F1 2026 calendar is mostly more of the same, albeit with some frustrating, head-scratching elements to it. Pitting the Canadian Grand Prix against the Indy 500 seems like a massive misstep and having a packed twenty four Grand Prix calendar that lasts from March until December raises questions about logistics, burn out and motives behind such a stacked calendar. How will it all pan out and will 2027 be any different? We’ll have to wait and see.
Feature Image Credit: McLaren Media Centre