Why F1 made decision on replacing cancelled races after late phone call

Formula One currently finds itself in the middle of an unplanned and rather inconvenient early-season break. The slot that should’ve had the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend will instead sit empty, with the next race not scheduled until early April.

The Bahrain race was set to be followed by the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, but because of rising tensions in the Middle East, both were cancelled. The question that Formula One fans are asking though, is why weren’t they replaced?

The decision to push forward without a replacement has left a black hole in the middle of the Formula One season, just three races after it got underway. Racing will continue from Miami on Sunday, May 3, but until then… nothing.

It isn’t like there’s a shortage of tracks that would’ve taken the race on, even at such short notice. Paul Ricard Circuit in France, the Nurburgring in Germany, and, of course, Imola, are all tracks desperate to regain their Formula One status.

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Portimao in Portugal, which is likely to be added to the calendar for 2027, was also mentioned, and there was talk about doing back-to-back Japanese races. While Peter Malinauskas, the state premier of South Australia, had also pitched Adelaide as a potential replacement.

Speaking to Triple M, Malinauskas revealed that he asked about the possibility of Formula One returning to Adelaide, but it was later decided that the cancelled races wouldn't be replaced.

He said: "I reached out to Stefano Domenicali, who is the CEO of F1. I’ve been working on this a little bit for a while, and when the events got cancelled because of the Iran war, I was straight on the phone to them.

"As soon as it became obvious that they were not going to be racing in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, I was like: 'Hello, is this an opportunity?'. So I hit the phone and asked. I put it out to them.

"I said: 'Listen, I’ve got the team, they’ve worked the numbers. We can set the track up on these timelines'. They said: 'Look, leave it with us', but they’ve decided to cancel those races and not replace them.

"You’ve got to be in it to win it, but I wasn’t putting it out there publicly because it was an initial reach-out. I rang them directly."

There were also concerns about the pressure it would put on team personnel, given the already strenuous nature of the Formula One schedule. They believed an extra two races at short notice, coupled with disrupting, might be a little too much to take for teams.

It does give teams a little extra time to work on their new cars following the regulation changes, with Drivers’ Championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, laying out his hopes for the impromptu spring break. He told Sky Italia: “In Japan, on Sunday, I didn’t enjoy the victory as much as I wanted because I was upset about the start.

“Of course, I was aware that I had been very lucky despite that. I was happy with how I managed to take advantage of the opportunity and also with the race pace. But I was very angry about the start – it was really shocking, the kind of thing that makes you want to pull your hair out. I’m already working on it.”