When the lights go out at Sepang on Sunday morning, Formula 1 will officially contest the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, with a race carrying Bahrain’s name taking place on a Malaysian circuit. The event, officially renamed the “Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia”, is a pragmatic solution designed to preserve a round of the championship after the original race was cancelled amid geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
It is not the first time Formula 1 has adopted a Grand Prix name effectively “borrowed” from somewhere else. Throughout the championship’s long history, several races have been held outside the territory of the country whose name they carried. The unusual 2026 Bahrain GP at Sepang therefore has several historical precedents, each shaped by a different combination of political, regulatory or commercial circumstances.
The Swiss GP at Dijon: a ban born from the 1955 tragedy
The Swiss Grand Prix returned to the Formula 1 calendar on only two occasions after the mid-1950s, both of them at Dijon-Prenois in France: a non-championship race in 1975 and a World Championship round in 1982.
The reason can be traced back to the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans disaster, in which more than 80 people lost their lives. The Swiss government, which was already moving towards a restrictive position on circuit-racing safety, banned motor racing on permanent circuits. The decision made it impossible to hold races on Swiss territory and consigned the old Bremgarten circuit to history.
Swiss organisers, supported by the national automobile club, therefore decided to move the event across the border while retaining its national designation. The 1982 race at Dijon was won by Keke Rosberg for Williams, giving him his first Formula 1 victory. It remains the most recent official edition of the Swiss Grand Prix. The ban was partially revised only decades later, but that did not lead to the Grand Prix returning to Switzerland.
The San Marino GP at Imola: two Italian races on the same territory
From 1981 until 2006, the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari at Imola regularly hosted the San Marino Grand Prix despite being located entirely within Italy, only a short distance from the Republic of San Marino.
The arrangement originated from the desire to secure two annual World Championship rounds for Italy. In 1980, Imola had hosted the Italian Grand Prix in place of Monza. Monza returned to its traditional place on the calendar the following year, but the Imola organisers and the San Marino federation succeeded in obtaining a second race under the San Marino flag. Italy therefore retained two events: a spring race at Imola and a late-summer Grand Prix at Monza.
The designation made it possible to comply with the rules of the period, which formally restricted the use of the same national Grand Prix name for multiple events within one country. The arrangement lasted for a quarter of a century before Imola disappeared from the calendar after 2006. The circuit eventually returned to Formula 1 in 2020 under the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix name.
The way Formula 1 venues have hosted races under different Grand Prix identities can also be explored through the F1 Circuit Records & Statistics database, which brings together the championship history of both current and former circuits.
The Luxembourg GP at the Nürburgring: a calendar solution
In 1997 and 1998, the Nürburgring’s GP-Strecke in Germany hosted the Luxembourg Grand Prix. The German circuit lies around 80 km from the border with the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and, despite the race name, the event was never held on Luxembourgish territory.
The reasoning was primarily organisational. The Nürburgring had already staged the European Grand Prix in 1995 and 1996. In 1997, however, the cancellation of the Portuguese Grand Prix and the addition of a second race in Spain at Jerez – itself called the European Grand Prix – created the need for a different name for the German event.
Using the title “Luxembourg Grand Prix” allowed Formula 1 to retain the Nürburgring race without creating a clash with the German Grand Prix, which was already assigned to the Hockenheimring. The same arrangement was repeated in 1998 before the Nürburgring returned to hosting the European Grand Prix the following year. It was therefore primarily a calendar and commercial-rights solution rather than an initiative rooted in Luxembourg’s motorsport history.
The two Luxembourg Grands Prix were won by Jacques Villeneuve for Williams in 1997 and Mika Hakkinen for McLaren in 1998.
The European GP at Baku in 2016: international ambition and regulatory requirements
In 2016, the street circuit in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, made its Formula 1 World Championship debut under the European Grand Prix name. Only from 2017 did the event become the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
There were several reasons behind the decision. Azerbaijan, a Caucasus country on the Caspian Sea, wanted to present itself internationally as a modern nation with strong links towards Europe after already hosting major events including the Eurovision Song Contest and the European Games. Using the European Grand Prix designation helped reinforce that image.
At the same time, Bernie Ecclestone and the organisers used the name to meet Concorde Agreement requirements concerning a minimum number of races on the European continent. The Baku race, despite taking place geographically in Asia, therefore helped balance the calendar. A financially attractive contract and Formula 1’s desire to expand into new markets completed the picture.
The experiment lasted for only one season under that name. From 2017 onwards, the event competed under Azerbaijan’s own national designation. The final European Grand Prix was won by Nico Rosberg for Mercedes.
How the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia fits F1 history
From Switzerland’s safety ban to Germany’s calendar manoeuvring, from Italy’s desire to retain two home races to Azerbaijan’s international ambitions, these examples show how Formula 1 has repeatedly adapted to political, regulatory and commercial constraints.
The relocated Bahrain race is the latest example. The revised 2026 Formula 1 calendar places the Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang, while the dedicated 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix section follows the weekend’s developments from Malaysia.
The 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia therefore belongs to a tradition that stretches across several eras of Formula 1 history. When circumstances prevent a race from taking place in its original location, the championship has repeatedly found pragmatic alternatives – even when that means sending the cars racing under a flag that does not match the country beneath their wheels.
Leave a Reply