The Malaysian GP might make a return this year as a replacement race

Due to the continuous on-going conflict in the Middle East, the Formula 1 race calendar has been a bit messed up, with the first few races that took place in the Middle East such as the Bahrain GP (April 12) Saudi Arabian GP (April 19) being cancelled, and the fate of the Qatar (November 29) and Abu Dhabi GP (December 6) still uncertain.

Up until earlier this week, the Bahrain GP was slated to make a return later this year for October 4 until the country was hit by missiles. However, there is some surprising news to this, as multiple replacement race venues are being eyed to fill in the slot, with one of them being the iconic Malaysian GP that takes place on the Sepang International Circuit, which is the strongest contender so far out of all of the picks.

Formula 1 hasn’t raced since 2017 on this FIA Grade 1 circuit, but it’s still home to multiple high-level motorsports such as MotoGP, GT World Challenge Asia, TCR, and Super GT. Rumors of the track’s return have been floating around since the start of the conflict in the Middle East, but nobody was expecting the decision making for it to return within the year as a filler.

Other popular choices have also included Turkey and Portimao, but Malaysia makes the most sense geographically and logistically, as it’s right next to Singapore, which is set to take place the following weekend on October 11, and the Sepang International Circuit is relatively close to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Regardless, with rumors being rumors, this might not happen, of course. But if this were to make a surprise return, would you consider watching this live?

^{Photos from Formula 1 and Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team}