Our reaction to Malaysia RETURNING to the F1 grid
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When was Malaysia officially announced to return to the F1 calendar?
Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 Podcast with Matt and Tommy. Another one. It is official! Tom Bellingham, Sepang, Malaysia. We've dreamed of this moment. I used to pray for times like these. Yes, I know it's come because of other cancelled races, but... I can't believe it.
I never thought we'd race to this track again.
No, because everything we ever heard was that they couldn't do it. The government aren't going to pay for it.
Wow. I can't believe. This is one of the shocks of the season, to be honest, that this has returned. I did not expect it one bit. Of course, if you're a long-term listener, you will know that we get the question a lot of times. If you could have any track returning, we always say it, both of us, every single time we say Malaysia, it's a banging track. It's been fantastic for Formula One, been amazing battles and we've missed it a lot. A very cool thing, obviously, you know, not the nicest circumstances. Why it's returning, of course, has to be said. But to see Malaysia back on the Formula One calendar as a Formula One fan is a very exciting thing.
It really is. If you haven't seen the news, if this is your way of getting the news, it is on October the 4th. And may I say to the organisers... Screw you, that was my holiday week. No. Absolutely ridiculous. I was like, oh, yeah, Malaysia's back. October the 4th. Oh, I'm supposed to be abroad. So we'll figure out how I'm going to do that. But still so, so excited to have Malaysia back. One thing, and I don't know how we're going to title the podcasts when we get there, is that the race will be presented as the Bahrain Grand Prix being held in Malaysia.
Wow.
So the understanding is that Bahrain are paying for it to happen in Malaysia. That's the understanding anyway. And so will we be calling it the Bahrain Grand Prix? Probably not. We won't.
I mean, we won't. They will. I mean, they surely will be. I'm amazed that that is what it's going to be. We've seen this before where... the race at Nurburgring was Luxembourg Grand Prix back in the day and we have seen the odd thing where it's not the official title but this is very of course unusual and obviously Bahrain it's quite clear that they have because it was heavily rumored before changes in circumstances around the world of course that Bahrain were trying to get back on the calendar after their earlier cancellation And it was almost seemingly like it was going to happen and they would return later. Now, obviously, it's quite clear that can't happen now. So what a bizarre situation that it seems like they will essentially, you know, be having the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
And that's how we've got Sepang back on the calendar as the Bahrain Grand Prix. I don't think that was on anyone's bingo card.
If anybody guessed that. you would be quite literally an oracle. So it's quite clear our first thoughts are one of happiness that we're seeing this track, this iconic circuit. Let's go to some questions. P1 Patreon member Amy. How do you think the track will suit this new generation of cars? Two long straights provide some great overtaking issues, but also means energy management will be an issue.
i don't think it will be crazy bad obviously i wanted sepang to return because i think the um the way the the circuit is it's always provided great racing in regulations gone by um you know the reason we always hype it up is because it's got an amazing first sector where we saw yo-yo racing before yo-yo racing was even a thing because you could do switchbacks and the other person would then get a great run and overtake into the next corner um so i'm hopeful that we'll still see some fantastic racing there in terms of energy and super clipping It's not, I hope, not going to be anything as bad as Spa. At the end of the day, you've got a heavy braking zone at turn 1, turn 4, turn 9, turn 14, turn 15.
So hopefully get a good amount of charge through the lap. It won't be like a Hungary or a Monaco where they're able to just push flat out. There'll definitely be some super clipping, I'm sure.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
When was Malaysia officially announced to return to the F1 calendar?
0:05–8:24
2
Why is Sepang returning as the Bahrain Grand Prix instead of the Malaysian Grand Prix?
8:24–10:55
3
How do Matt and Tommy react to the surprise of Malaysia's sudden reinstatement?
10:55–18:01
4
How will the 2026 generation of F1 cars suit Sepang's layout and energy demands?
18:01–18:16