Next F1 race moved with new date and location for this weekend

F1 will return to a familiar circuit of days gone by this weekend with the next race on the 2026 schedule moved to a new date and location.

The Bahrain Grand Prix had originally been slated to take place in Sakhir from April 10-12 inclusive, but it was cancelled due to the onset of the conflict in the Middle East.

With no sign of that conflict easy (on the contrary, things appear to be escalating in recent days) F1 and local organisers took the drastic decision to move the race to a new date and a new location on an entirely different continent.

Now the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix will take place at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia, which of course formerly staged the Malaysian Grand Prix until that race ended in 2017.

Now Sepang is back on the calendar under another race name and the action will take place this weekend as Round 16 of the 2026 World Championship.

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Bahrain Grand Prix Schedule: Sepang start times

The action in Sepang gets under way on Friday October 2 and runs through to the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday October 4. The schedule looks like this (all times UK):

Sepang circuit stats

Sunday's 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix will be run over 56 laps of the 5.543km Sepang circuit.

The circuit staged the first Malaysian Grand Prix back in 1999 and the final race there took place in 2017.

Sebastian Vettel was the track's most successful driver with four race wins, ahead of Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso (three each).

Ferrari is the most successful Constructor at Sepang with seven race victories, while Red Bull are next with five.

Why is the Bahrain Grand Prix taking place in Malaysia

Organisers are unable to stage the race in Bahrain due to the war in the Middle East, so the decision was taken to move the race to Malaysia.

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