Formula 1 and the FIA announced the F1 2027 calendar on September 16, 2026, following approval by the World Motor Sport Council: 24 Grands Prix across 22 countries, opening in Bahrain on March 14 and closing in Abu Dhabi on December 12. The race count is unchanged. What changes is the content of the season. Sprint events rise from six to ten, and a Sprint weekend adds a second competitive session without any change to a sponsor’s rights fee. For anyone already on a car, that makes ten Sprints the most consequential line in the whole announcement. The full F1 2027 schedule comes first, with every date, circuit, and Sprint flag. The commercial read follows: what the extra Saturday sessions do to sponsor inventory, which markets enter and leave, how the shape of the season constrains activation, and where the contingency risk sits.
TL;DR
- 24 Grands Prix, 22 countries, five continents, ten months. The F1 2027 calendar opens in Bahrain in March and closes in Abu Dhabi in December.
- Ten Sprint weekends, up from six. Bahrain, Australia, Japan, Monaco and Abu Dhabi host for the first time; Montréal, Silverstone, Monza, São Paulo and Lusail return. That is the answer to which F1 races are sprints in 2027.
- Front-loaded. Six Sprints fall in the first twelve rounds, four in the second half.
- Four venues lose the format. Miami, Shanghai and Singapore no longer host Sprints, and Zandvoort disappears with the Dutch Grand Prix itself.
- Market changes. Portugal returns at Portimão on a two-year deal; Türkiye returns at Istanbul Park on a five-year deal through 2031; Barcelona enters a rotation with Spa.
- Shorter pre-season. Testing drops to a single four-day test in Bahrain. All dates are subject to change; see the contingency section.
F1 2027 calendar at a glance: 24 races, 22 countries and a record 10 Sprints
The F1 2027 calendar runs to 24 rounds in 22 countries across five continents, spread over ten months from March to December. It was announced jointly by Formula 1 and the FIA on September 16, 2026, after World Motor Sport Council approval. The United States hosts three of the 24 rounds, which is why the country count sits two below the race count.
The headline number is ten Sprint weekends, against six in each of the past four seasons and three in each of the two before that. The season opens on a Sprint weekend in Bahrain, which has never happened before, and closes with two Sprint weekends in a row in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
This page covers, in order: the full schedule; the ten Sprint venues and why the format expanded; what the extra Saturday session does to sponsor inventory; which markets enter and leave; how the season’s shape constrains activation planning; and where the contingency risk sits. A planning matrix and a downloadable calendar close the page.
The full F1 2027 schedule: every race date, circuit and Sprint weekend
The table below is built from the calendar published by Formula 1 and the FIA on September 16, 2026. Dates are weekend spans, Friday to Sunday, except Las Vegas, which runs Thursday to Saturday with the race on Saturday night. The Turkish Grand Prix is subject to FIA circuit homologation. Every date in the F1 2027 schedule is subject to change; the contingency section below explains where the risk is concentrated.
| Round | Date | Grand Prix | Circuit | Sprint |
| 1 | 12–14 Mar | Bahrain Grand Prix | Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir | Yes |
| 2 | 19–21 Mar | Saudi Arabian Grand Prix | Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Jeddah | No |
| 3 | 2–4 Apr | Australian Grand Prix | Albert Park, Melbourne | Yes |
| 4 | 9–11 Apr | Japanese Grand Prix | Suzuka | Yes |
| 5 | 16–18 Apr | Chinese Grand Prix | Shanghai International Circuit | No |
| 6 | 30 Apr–2 May | Miami Grand Prix | Miami International Autodrome | No |
| 7 | 21–23 May | Canadian Grand Prix | Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, Montréal | Yes |
| 8 | 4–6 Jun | Monaco Grand Prix | Circuit de Monaco | Yes |
| 9 | 18–20 Jun | Portuguese Grand Prix | Algarve International Circuit, Portimão | No |
| 10 | 2–4 Jul | British Grand Prix | Silverstone | Yes |
| 11 | 9–11 Jul | Austrian Grand Prix | Red Bull Ring, Spielberg | No |
| 12 | 23–25 Jul | Belgian Grand Prix | Spa-Francorchamps | No |
| 13 | 30 Jul–1 Aug | Hungarian Grand Prix | Hungaroring, Budapest | No |
| 14 | 3–5 Sep | Italian Grand Prix | Monza | Yes |
| 15 | 10–12 Sep | Spanish Grand Prix | Madring, Madrid | No |
| 16 | 24–26 Sep | Azerbaijan Grand Prix | Baku City Circuit | No |
| 17 | 1–3 Oct | Turkish Grand Prix* | Istanbul Park | No |
| 18 | 8–10 Oct | Singapore Grand Prix | Marina Bay Street Circuit | No |
| 19 | 22–24 Oct | United States Grand Prix | Circuit of the Americas, Austin | No |
| 20 | 29–31 Oct | Mexico City Grand Prix | Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez | No |
| 21 | 5–7 Nov | São Paulo Grand Prix | Interlagos | Yes |
| 22 | 18–20 Nov | Las Vegas Grand Prix | Las Vegas Strip Circuit | No |
| 23 | 3–5 Dec | Qatar Grand Prix | Lusail International Circuit | Yes |
| 24 | 10–12 Dec | Abu Dhabi Grand Prix | Yas Marina Circuit | Yes |
The season’s arc is worth reading as a sequence. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia open as a double-header in March. Australia, Japan and China follow as a triple-header in April, before Miami at the start of May and Montréal later that month. The European leg opens with Monaco in early June and takes in Portugal’s return two weeks later. Silverstone is paired with Austria, Belgium with Hungary, and Hungary closes the first half at the start of August.
After the summer break, Monza and Madrid run back-to-back in September. Azerbaijan, Türkiye and Singapore form a triple-header from late September into October, followed by a second triple-header of Austin, Mexico City and São Paulo. Las Vegas stands alone in November, and Qatar and Abu Dhabi close the season in December.
F1 2027 sprint races: the 10 venues and why the format expanded
The F1 2027 sprint races are the clearest change on the calendar: ten weekends instead of six, with five venues hosting the format for the first time. The rules of the F1 sprint weekend format are explained in our guide to how the Sprint format works; this section covers where the Sprints are and the evidence Formula 1 used to justify them.
Which F1 races are sprints in 2027: five new venues and five returning
Which F1 races are sprints in 2027? Ten: Bahrain, Australia, Japan, Canada, Monaco, Great Britain, Italy, São Paulo, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Five host a Sprint for the first time: Bahrain (Sakhir), Australia (Albert Park), Japan (Suzuka), Monaco and Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina). Five return: Montréal, Silverstone, Monza, São Paulo (Interlagos) and Lusail.
The distribution is uneven. Six of the F1 2027 sprint races fall within the first twelve rounds, three of them in the first four, and only four come after the summer break.
For a commercial reader, the venues that lose the format matter as much as those that gain it. Miami, Shanghai and Singapore all hosted Sprints in 2026 and do not in 2027, and Zandvoort’s Sprint disappears with the Dutch Grand Prix itself. A brand that built a Saturday activation around Miami or Shanghai is now planning against a changed asset. Monaco is the notable addition, given the long-running debate about overtaking there; Formula 1’s stated logic is that qualifying is often the highlight of the weekend, so it has added a second one.
The Sprint performance data F1 published to justify ten weekends
Formula 1 released four figures with the announcement, attributed to data gathered since the Sprint was introduced in 2021. Total viewership of Sprint weekends is 12% higher than non-Sprint weekends. Sprint Qualifying is up to three times more popular with fans than Free Practice. 82% of attendees at Sprint weekends say it adds value to their ticket. And 75% of F1 fans believe Sprint events add greater value to a season’s calendar (Formula 1, September 16, 2026).
Those are the rights holder’s own figures, published in support of its own decision. No independent audit of them is available, and they should be read as Formula 1’s case for the F1 Sprint weekend format rather than as neutral fact. They are still the best public evidence there is, and the next section builds on the one most relevant to sponsors: the comparison between Sprint Qualifying and practice.
What sprint races mean for F1 sponsors: more Saturday inventory at the same rights fee
The commercial logic is simple. Ten Sprint weekends means ten weekends on which two low-audience practice sessions are replaced by competitive sessions with full broadcast production. A team sponsor’s rights fee is contracted per season, not per session. So what sprint races mean for F1 sponsors, in plain terms, is more competitive exposure at the same price, distributed unevenly across the F1 2027 sprint races. Two questions follow: how the exposure actually changes, and whether anyone is repricing for it.
How an extra competitive session changes sponsor broadcast exposure
The F1 sprint weekend format replaces two practice sessions with Sprint Qualifying on Friday and a race of about 100 km on Saturday morning, leaving a single practice hour. That converts lightly watched running into peak-audience competitive sessions, which is exactly what Formula 1’s three-times-Free-Practice figure describes.
For a sponsor, the F1 2027 sprint races shift the exposure mix more than they simply add to it: fewer hours of practice, more hours of racing, across ten of 24 weekends in 2027 against six in 2026. The second-order effects matter too. There is more grid and parc fermé coverage, ten extra Sprint podiums across the season, and a Saturday news cycle where previously there was only qualifying.
What this page will not do is put a dollar value on it. No public dataset supports a per-Sprint media value figure, and inventing one would undermine everything else here. How the value of each surface is assessed is covered in our guide to what each position on the car is worth.
Do Sprint weekends reprice F1 sponsorship? What the public record shows
There is no public evidence of team or series rights fees being repriced against Sprint count. Team deals are contracted per season rather than per session, and no team has disclosed a Sprint-linked clause.
The practical consequence is a negotiating point rather than a market fact. A brand renewing for 2027 acquires four more Sprint weekends of inventory than it had in 2026, at whatever fee it negotiates. That delta is worth raising rather than assuming it has been priced in, either way. Put the question to the counterparty directly: how has the 2027 Sprint count been reflected in the proposal? For the price bands themselves, see what a F1 sponsorship costs. An independent adviser, with no inventory of its own to defend, is the party best placed to ask.
F1 2027 calendar changes that shift sponsor value: Portugal and Türkiye in, Barcelona and Zandvoort out
The F1 2027 calendar changes come down to four markets: two in and two out. Each arrives or leaves on a different contract length, and contract length is what sets a sponsor’s planning horizon. The 2026 baseline these changes depart from is described in our guide to how the 2026 season was structured.
Portugal and Türkiye return: two new markets on very different deal lengths
Portugal returns at Portimão for the first time since 2021, on a two-year contract covering 2027 and 2028 agreed with the Portuguese government, the national tourism board and the promoter. Türkiye returns to Istanbul Park, also for the first time since 2021, on a five-year deal through 2031 announced in April 2026.
The commercial read is the asymmetry. A five-year term supports a brand building a multi-season regional activation around Istanbul. A two-year term at Portimão does not: a sponsor planning a Portuguese market entry needs to know the race may not be there in 2029.
The two also sit very differently in the season. Türkiye is the middle leg of the October triple-header between Azerbaijan and Singapore. Portimão is effectively a June standalone, two weeks after Monaco and two weeks before Silverstone.
Barcelona’s biennial rotation and the end of the Dutch Grand Prix
Barcelona-Catalunya drops out for 2027 as it enters a rotation with Belgium: Spa holds the Belgian Grand Prix in odd years, and Barcelona returns in even years, from 2028 through 2031. That is an alternation, not an exit, and it is a materially different proposition from losing the race.
Zandvoort leaves the calendar outright after its final race in 2026. Spain keeps a round through Madrid, whose debut is covered in our guide to how the 2026 season was structured, so the Spanish market is not lost; the Dutch market is.
For a sponsor, this is the cleanest planning signal in the F1 2027 calendar. A Dutch activation built on a home race has no 2027 venue at all. A Spanish one relocates to a different city, with a different audience profile, and should be re-planned rather than simply moved.
Season shape for 2027: triple-headers, standalones and a shorter pre-season
The grouping of the F1 2027 schedule was built for logistics and sustainability, but it also dictates when a sponsor can activate and when the sport goes quiet. Two things matter: where the concentrated runs and the standalone weekends fall, and how much the pre-season has shrunk.
Triple-headers and standalone races: where the activation windows sit
There are three triple-headers: Australia, Japan and China in April; Azerbaijan, Türkiye and Singapore from late September into October; and Austin, Mexico City and São Paulo from late October into November. Each compresses three markets into three weekends. That suits multi-event hospitality programs and regional campaign bursts, but it leaves no room for activation between races.
Against that, two rounds stand alone. Las Vegas races on Saturday, November 20, with two weeks before Qatar. Portimão sits in June with two weeks either side. Both give a brand a week of attention it does not have to share with another Grand Prix, which is what a product launch needs.
For US-market planning, the three American rounds, Miami, Austin and Las Vegas, fall in May, October and November. The practical rule for the F1 2027 schedule: match launch moments to the standalones, and hospitality programs to the triple-headers.
Pre-season testing cut to one four-day Bahrain test: less content, earlier reveal
The F1 2027 pre-season testing dates are February 24 to 27, a single four-day test at Bahrain International Circuit. Four days is more than the three that are usual outside major rule-change years, but it is a sharp reduction from 2026, when the new regulations brought a five-day private test in Barcelona in January followed by two three-day tests in Bahrain in February.
The commercial consequence is that the February content window a sponsor could build launch activity around is roughly halved. With Bahrain opening the season on a Sprint weekend on March 12 to 14, the gap between the last day of testing and the first competitive session is unusually short, and teams get only one practice hour before Sprint Qualifying at the opener.
he practical takeaway: plan F1 livery reveals and campaign launches around the F1 2027 pre-season testing dates, which means landing them earlier in February than in 2026.
Middle East contingency risk in the F1 2027 calendar: what sponsors should contract for
This is the most perishable section on the page, and it is stated as of October 13, 2026. The F1 2027 calendar opens with Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and closes with Qatar and Abu Dhabi, and all four sit in a region where the 2026 season was already disrupted. In March 2026, Formula 1 cancelled the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian rounds because of the war in the Middle East; the Bahrain Grand Prix was later run at Sepang in Malaysia, and the Saudi round was not held.
The 2026 finale is still unresolved at the time of writing. The Qatar and Abu Dhabi rounds remain officially on the calendar, and Formula 1’s chief executive reaffirmed them in early October, but teams have been told to expect a final decision in mid-October, with Imola understood to be on standby as a replacement (ESPN; Sky Sports; GPFans, October 2026).
The commercial instruction follows. A sponsor contracting activation, hospitality or media spend against any of those four 2027 rounds should negotiate make-good provisions for relocation or cancellation rather than assume the published date.
F1 2027 calendar planning matrix: which races fit which sponsorship objective
The matrix matches objective to race. It assumes the calendar as published; if the Middle East situation changes, the first and last rows are the ones to revisit. Before planning against any of these dates, check whether your category is already held at team level by who is already on the grid, or championship-wide by Formula 1’s own partners.
| Objective | Best races in 2027 | Why | Watch out for |
| Product launch needing uncontested attention | Portimão in June, Las Vegas in November | Standalone weekends with no adjacent race competing for coverage | Las Vegas sits two weeks before Qatar, so the news cycle closes fast |
| Maximum broadcast exposure per weekend | The ten Sprint rounds, weighted to the first half | An extra competitive session at peak audience | Six of ten fall before round 12, so a mid-season start misses most of them |
| Multi-market regional activation | The Azerbaijan-Türkiye-Singapore and Austin-Mexico City-São Paulo triple-headers | Three markets in three weekends on one freight cycle | No activation gap between rounds |
| US-market focus | Miami, Austin, Las Vegas | Three rounds across three distinct audience profiles | Miami no longer carries a Sprint |
| New long-term market entry | Istanbul, on a deal through 2031 | A five-year horizon supports multi-season building | Portimão’s shorter term does not |
| Season-opening visibility | Bahrain, on a Sprint weekend | Sprint format at round one, for the first time | A compressed build-up after a single four-day test, and regional contingency risk |
Download the F1 2027 calendar
A one-page, RTR-branded PDF of the 2027 season, with all 24 rounds, dates, circuits and Sprint flags, accompanies this article.
Download the F1 2027 calendar (PDF)
Motorsport calendars: 2027 season
Ten Sprints change what the same fee buys
The 2027 season keeps the race count and changes the content mix, and ten Sprint weekends are the change with the clearest effect on what a sponsor’s existing fee actually buys. Three planning actions follow from the F1 2027 calendar. Raise the Sprint delta in any 2027 renewal. Match launch activity to the two standalone rounds, Portimão and Las Vegas. And contract make-goods against the four Middle East rounds. To judge afterwards whether the season delivered, see our guide on how to measure what a season delivers. RTR Sports Marketing works only for brands, with no team or series to represent, so our read of the calendar is not shaped by anyone’s inventory. If you want to talk through a 2027 program, now is the time.
