Formula 1 considered an unexpected solution after the cancellation of the Saudi Arabian and Bahrain GPs due to the war in the Middle East, but the attempt to return Adelaide to the calendar ended up not moving forward. The proposal came from the South Australian government, which tried to take advantage of the gap left by the cancelled races.
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The conflict in the Middle East led the category’s officials to cancel the races in Jeddah and Sakhir. As a result, a gap of approximately one month emerged in April, opening up space for possible alternatives on the category’s calendar.
Peter Malinauskas, Premier of South Australia, revealed that he contacted Formula 1 directly as soon as he noticed the opportunity. In an interview with Triple M radio, he explained that he sought to convince the category to bring the category back to the Adelaide circuit: “As soon as it became obvious that they weren’t going to race in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, I thought: ‘Hello! Is this an opportunity?’ So I picked up the phone and asked,” Malinauskas stated, detailing the initiative to try to make this return viable.
The official also highlighted that the proposal included logistical and financial planning to hold the event within the available timeframe. According to him, there was a team prepared to make the race viable quickly, should Formula 1 accept the idea: “If we had closed this, people would have found out a bit sooner. I presented the proposal and said: ‘I have the team, they’ve done the calculations, we can set up the circuit within these timeframes,’ and they said: ‘Leave it with us’,” he added.
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Despite the effort, Formula 1 chose not to replace the cancelled stages, ending any possibility of Adelaide’s immediate return to the category’s calendar: “But they decided to cancel those races and not replace them,” Malinauskas concluded.
As a result, the Formula 1 calendar will remain with the gap left by the two races, while the attempt to bring Adelaide back, at least for now, remained only in the initial plan.
