Organisers of the Australian Grand Prix have ruled out hosting next year’s Formula 1 season-opener if Bahrain cannot do so because of the war in the Middle East.
F1 announced its 2027 schedule on Wednesday, with the first race of the season reverting to Bahrain on 14 March after Albert Park in Melbourne hosted the season-opener in the last two years.
Bahrain is also slated to host pre-season testing in February but the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which resulted in the cancellation of races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia back in April, means F1 face a nervous wait over the next few months to see how the situation resolves.
For now, F1 is pushing ahead with the season-concluding races this year in Qatar (29 November) and Abu Dhabi (6 December), with Imola understood to be the back-up plan.
However, Australian GP CEO Travis Auld insists Melbourne will not be a contingency plan for next year’s season-opener.
"Our date’s been locked in now, April 1-4,” he said. “Clearly we’ve got a big asset being built behind us that has some timelines attached to it.” This refers to the new pit building at Albert Park.
“So, we’re pretty much locked in at that April 1-4 date. I think it would be difficult for us to move that date now."
Australia is set to be round three of the 2027 season, with Bahrain hosting the opener followed by round two in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Albert Park has hosted close to one million fans over the last two editions, with the new race date also coinciding with Australian school holidays.
Bahrain, meanwhile, has already switched its grand prix this year to the Sepang circuit in Malaysia for 4 October.
The next race on this year’s calendar is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Saturday 26 September.
