Popular European venue targets F1 calendar return

Formula 1 could return to Portugal from 2027 following comments made by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro.

There is an appetite locally to see Portimao return to the calendar, after the world championship visited twice in 2020 and 2021.

Portugal chasing return to F1 calendar

Comments by Prime Minister Montenegro have revealed there are now efforts underway to bring F1 back to Portugal from 2027.

“One of the circumstances that most contributes to promoting this region is major events,” he said at a festival within the Algarve region. “We have secured the MotoGP, the world’s premier motorcycle racing event, for 2025 and 2026.

“And I can tell you that we have everything ready to formalise the return of Formula 1 to the Algarve next year, in 2027. These events require some financial effort on the part of the government, but they have a direct financial return and an indirect promotional return that are, quite frankly, well worth it.”

While Montenegro spoke optimistically of a future event, it is far from a certainty.

The F1 calendar has, at most, 24 slots available, with the bulk of those locked away into the medium future.

And while there are opportunities to join the schedule set to open up in the coming years, there is also strong competition for those.

Thailand is thought to be the frontrunner with a well-established project, backed by government funding, looking to secure an event around the streets of Bangkok.

Government backing is thought to be critical to any new bidder, which is a plus point towards the Portuguese effort.

The lack of government support is understood to be a critical element in why South Africa’s current efforts to secure an event are not considered serious.

There are two separate projects in the nation; one attempting to lure F1 back to Kyalami, which has the support but not the financial backing of the Minister of Sports, Art and Culture, Gayton Mckenzie, and another in Cape Town.

Nigeria has also announced its interest in an event, though that is understood to have made little impact upon those at Formula One Management.

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The Portuguese project is somewhat different.

It uses an existing facility already up to the standard required of Formula 1, and can boast to be from a ‘traditional’ motorsport country.

There is a need and desire to retain events in Europe despite the seemingly incessant march both East and into the US, where markets are growing and promotion fees are plentiful.

But with the Dutch GP set to disappear, the existing Spanish GP out of contract after next year’s race, and Belgium to become a rotational event from 2027 (it will be absent from the calendar in 2028), there is a need to find an event.

Portugal could therefore plug that gap, either with an annual spot or as a rotating partner alongside the likes of the Belgian GP.

Formula 1 has a deep association with Portugal, having first visited in the late 1950s – twice on a street circuit in Porto and once at the Monsato Park circuit near Lisbon.

It was in the mid-1980s that it became a mainstay, with Estoril hosting a round of the world championship on 13 occasions from 1984. Jacques Villeneuve won the venue’s last race in 1996 before the event dropped off the calendar.

F1 returned to Portugal in 2020, making a race debut at Portimao as the championship responded to the global pandemic at the time.

The circuit boasts an undulating 4.6km, Grade A grand prix circuit, with a spectator capacity of 100,000.

In addition to hosting F1 in 2020 and 2021, it is also home to the Portuguese Motorcycle Grand Prix and previously hosted the World Endurance Championship.

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