Formula 1 Grand Prix Weekend

Which Grand Prix weekend is coming up next?

F1 is now off to COTA for the Formula 1 MSC Cruises United States Grand Prix 2026 on 23rd – 25th October.  It’s the first weekend of a triple header with Mexico and Brazil, but at least there are no Sprint weekends this time round to make things even busier. The triple header itself is the second part of a triple triple header, assuming that the final two race weekends of the 2026 season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi go ahead. They have been confirmed as doing so, but that could still be derailed if the situation in the Gulf escalates in the meantime.  Imola has reportedly been on standby as a replacement venue but that could be very challenging due to seasonal weather conditions.

The 2027 calendar has also been released, with all four Middle East venues included as usual.  The teams are going to have their hands full with 24 race weekends, 10 of which are sprint weekends (including, bizarrely, Monaco).

What’s on the bingo card?

Max Verstappen has just had two weekends of utter dominance and COTA is a place where he’s been historically dominant, winning 4 out of the last 5 races (6 out of 7 if you count Sprints) and getting a podium in 7 out of the last 7 races.  Verstappen outscores Antonelli looks like a real possibility, perhaps more likely than maiden COTA win (anyone other than Hamilton, Bottas, Verstappen or Leclerc).

COTA being a home race won’t help Cadillac but you never know, something really radical could happen to result in Cadillac Q2 or points.

Also score for any driver sporting the classic COTA look – driver in a cowboy hat – and for any discussion in the commentary of Rafael Câmara, the talented Brazilian youngster who’s signed for Haas for 2027 and is currently leading the F2 championship.

Non track specific events

These are things that could happen anywhere – we swap them in and out to keep things fresh.

• Driver complains about tyres or grip
• Driver complains about strategy 
• Driver complains about rival’s driving
• Pit lane drama
• Safety car or VSC
• Swearing on radio (not as common as it used to be due to new harsh FIA punishments)
• Qualy red or yellow ruins laps
• Debris flies off a car
• Rain affects at least one session – i.e. wets/inters used at some point.  Included if rain forecasted.
• Plan B – you may hear this on team radio when they are having a coded discussion of strategy options.

Track specific events

These are things that can only happen at one track or at a certain type of track (night races, street races).  For example:

• Under the lights – night races only
• In the gravel or in the barrier – depends on runoff areas
• Race restarted (SC/Red Flag) more than once – for tracks with a history of it
• Track limits – for tracks where there’s lots of previous
• Something happens in the tunnel (Monaco)
• Winner hasn’t won at (insert name of track) before
• Hamilton Straight (Silverstone)
• Eau Rouge (Spa)
• Banking (Zandvoort)
• 130R (Suzuka)
• Stadium section (Mexico)

Feel free to make up your own!

Sprint events

These are things that are only useable for a Sprint weekend.  There are six of these again this year, the first being in China on the second race weekend of the season. For example:

• Sprint race – it’s a Sprint not a Race – but someone’s bound to slip up and call it a race in the commentary
• Sprint and Grand Prix have different winners – it’s happened before and certainly makes the weekend a bit more exciting
• Sprint and Grand Prix have different front row – ditto
• No retirements in sprint – can everyone last even that short distance with no crashes or mechanical failures?
• Driver a lap down in sprint – won’t be used in 2026 as the Red Bull Ring, which isn’t hosting a sprint this year, is the only place this is at all likely (this didn’t age well!)
• Maiden Sprint win –  Verstappen, Russell, Piastri, Norris, Hamilton, Antonelli, Bottas and Pérez have won Sprints to date but with 22 drivers on the grid, there are plenty who haven’t yet

Topical references

These are things that could happen or be mentioned in the commentary that are related to current talking points in F1.  For example:

• Anything to do with how a driver performs at their home race
• Anything to do with a driver’s recent performance (e.g. “Pérez has a shocker” in the latter half of 2024)
• How new teammates shape up against each other 
• Rule changes for 2026

You choose

“You choose” was first introduced for the 2022 race in Monaco (home of one of the world’s most famous casinos) and the idea is you have some items with two alternatives and choose which of them to cross out.  The crossing out can be done before you generate the cards (so everyone who gets the item gets the same version of it), or the players can do it before the start of qualy (in which case you might get different versions). “You choose” items are usually but not always topical or track specific.  For example:

• Charles Leclerc does/doesn’t finish race (Monaco)
• Heroics into Ste Devote / No heroics into Ste Devote (Monaco)
• No DNFs / 5 or more DNFs (Baku)
• British driver on podium / No British driver on podium (Silverstone)
• Both French drivers score points / Neither French driver scores points (France) – except there are three of them now
• Russell’s streak continues/ends – Russell was top 5 in every race he finished in 2022 until it all went wrong in Singapore
• [Championship leader] wins/doesn’t win – introduced for Verstappen’s home race Zandvoort but could be anywhere.

“You choose” items don’t appear every weekend, only when there’s something suitably topical to include. And of course, we’ll have them for Monaco and Las Vegas!

How To Play Grand Prix Weekend Bingo

The Formula 1 2026 Grand Prix Weekend bingo cards have been set to a 3×3 grid size with 9 items to mark off which we think is plenty for a single Grand Prix weekend (the Formula One Season bingo cards, which are meant to be played over several months, are bigger at 5×5).

• Tap to start
• Now, you have the opportunity to change the background and colours, add some items of your own to the list of events and/or remove any of ours you don’t like. We update the items on the cards for the current race weekend a couple of days before it starts – if you want to generate cards further in advance than that you’ll need to edit the list of items to remove anything unsuitable (e.g. under the lights if it’s not a night race, in the gravel if it’s a street race, anything related to Sprint if it’s not a Sprint weekend, stuff related to qualy if you’re only planning to watch the race itself).
• If the list has any “you choose” items you can delete the alternatives you don’t like at this stage (or replace with regular items if you don’t like “you choose”)
• Press Generate Bingo Cards.
• Choose the number of cards you’d like to print and press Generate Printable Cards.
• You’ll be taken to a page of cards, all different from each other and unique to you
• Print from your browser (adjusting the scaling via the printer settings if necessary) or save the URL for printing later
• Don’t want printed cards? Invite through email.  Each person you invite will receive a link to their very own bingo card, and you’ll get your own card too. (We don’t keep their email addresses).
• If there are any “you choose” items on your card that weren’t edited earlier on, cross out the alternative you don’t like before the start of qualy.

Once you’ve got your cards, daub the events as they happen, are mentioned in the commentary or shown on screen over the race weekend.   If you’re playing online, you can mark your card by touching or clicking on the grid square.  If you mark a square during qualy (or the sprint) it will still be marked when you return for the Grand Prix.

The winner is the first to complete a line but as this has been known to happen before the Grand Prix itself even starts you will probably want to play on to see who completes the most lines or gets full house.

PRO TIP – Print out more cards than you need so you can pick one with something you think is extremely likely to happen in the centre square (debris flies off a car and driver complains items are usually pretty safe bets).  That will give you an especially good chance of completing at least one line!

Want to play solo? – Set the grid size to 4×4 and print just one card with all 16 items on it!