2027 F1 Schedule Reaction: What's Going On?

2027 F1 Schedule Reaction: What’s Going On?

The 2027 Formula One schedule is out! The schedule includes 24 race weekends. The F1 schedule also went from having six to ten sprint races. A couple of tracks have disappeared, while a couple are returning. The schedule has been shuffled around, with some races happening sooner than expected. The 2026 season might be far from over, 2027 is what’s on everyone’s minds. 

Record-Breaking Update: 

The Formula One schedule now has 10 sprints. Sprints were introduced to make regular race weekends exciting. A sprint is a shorter version of the Grand Prix. Most weekends, what happens in a sprint predicts what’s going to happen in the actual Grand Prix. Do sprints make racing exciting? The short answer: sometimes, only when it’s the last couple of rounds of the season and the championship fight is tight. Six was already doing the most, but ten? Ten is overkill.  Sprints have their own qualifying, and the top eight get points.

When it’s down to the wire, and you have the chance to earn extra points, sprints are the perfect time to make it happen. But when it’s the beginning of the season, sprints are just pointless. They don’t add any more to a race weekend, and take away valuable practice time from teams for the sake of “entertainment.” The idea of a sprint weekend has never been the problem, just the execution. Sprints need a revamp, not more added to the calendar.

A sprint is meant to make a race weekend exciting. That doesn’t mean making a race weekend a sprint will make the race any better.  The way sprints are set up is the problem. Slapping them onto historic tracks isn’t going to fix the problem. Like Monaco, people watch Monaco because of its history. It’s one of the most prestigious tracks on the calendar. It’s part of the Triple Crown, alongside the Indy 500 and Le Mans.

It’s one of the oldest tracks on the calendar. Truth be told, the track did not age well; it’s seen as one of the most boring tracks on the calendar. There is no room to pass, and the race usually ends with most of the drivers in the same position they started in, or even qualified in. Monaco is on the calendar because of what it means to motorsports. The track itself isn’t built for modern race cars. Making it a sprint shows the true fault of a sprint weekend, a preview of the day. 

New Season Opener:

Bahrain will be the season opener for 2027! Bahrain hasn’t kicked off an F1 season since 2024, when it replaced Australia for a few years. Throughout sports history, Australia became synonymous with hosting the first race of the season. Until recently, when the Australian Grand Prix was cancelled over COVID restrictions, leading to the season opener moving to Bahrain.

Australia made its grand return as the season opener in 2025, and again in 2026. Now the 2027 season will kick off in Bahrain, as a sprint weekend, followed by Saudi Arabia. Australia is the third round on the calendar and has been confirmed to be a sprint weekend. Australia also kicks off the first triple header of the season, followed by Japan and China. The start of the first triple header of the season. Bahrain has always made the most sense to host the season opener, as teams are already testing on the track a few weeks before the season starts.

Two Tracks Are Back: 

Going into 2027, there for a fact that the Netherlands and Barcelona weren’t going to be on the calendar. Zandvoort announced all the way back in 2024 that it wouldn’t be on the F1 calendar after 2026. Though F1 is at its peak in the Netherlands due to the popularity of four-time world drivers’ champion Max Verstappen, hosting an F1 race became too expensive. So, Zandvoort opted out.

In Barcelona’s case, the race will be back next year, as it’s on a rotating schedule with Spa-Francorchamps through 2032. Barcelona has even years, while Spa has odd years. Barcelona has been known to host the Spanish Grand Prix. Now that honor has been given to the new Madrid street circuit, the Madring. 

With two tracks off the calendar, it leaves room for new tracks to appear on the calendar. Portugal is back, signing a two-year agreement to bring F1 back to the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. The last time F1 was in Portugal was in 2021, where lewis hamilton took home the win. The track is added to the European leg of the calendar in the first half of the season. That’s not the only track back. Coming back to Istanbul Park, the Turkish Grand Prix is confirmed to be on the 2027 calendar.

Turkey was also last on the calendar in 2021 for Formula One’s COVID era, with its last race winner being the other half of Mercedes at the time, Valtteri Bottas. The track is coming back for 2027 in the second half of the season, taking Bahrain’s usual place on the calendar.  The last time races were held in Portugal or Turkey, things were different because of COVID. It’ll be interesting to see how the race weekends will go at the track in its fullest potential.