Formula 1 Grand Prix Weekend

Which Grand Prix weekend is coming up next?

The bingo cards are now set up for the Formula 1 Heineken Chinese Grand Prix 2026 which takes place on 13th – 15th March at Shanghai International Circuit.  It’s a Sprint weekend on just the second Grand Prix weekend of the new regulations – what could possibly go wrong???

After China comes Japan, on 27th – 29th March.  And after that, who knows!  It’s supposed to be Sakhir then Jeddah, but events in the surrounding countries mean those races are in doubt.  A decision will need to be made soon as some of the freight was going to depart after Shanghai to travel to Bahrain by sea (which currently looks impossible).

What’s on the bingo card?

The only previous winners (and polesitters) around Shanghai are Alonso, Hamilton, Verstappen and Piastri so there’s a good chance of a maiden China win and/or a maiden China pole. The Sprint and GP both count, but in the case of pole Norris only scores if it’s for the Grand Prix as he’s previously collected sprint pole here.  Also score if sprint and grand prix have different winners and/or sprint and grand prix have different front row.

As for Sprint winners, the previous ones are Verstappen, Bottas, Perez, Russell, Piastri, Norris and Hamilton so there’s also the possibility of a maiden Sprint win.

If Australia is anything to go by look out for a Ferrari overtake off the line.  And also going by what happened in Australia, we have a new “driver complains” item – driver complains about battery.

Aston Martin didn’t have quite as bad a disaster last weekend as was feared and their next objective must be to finish the race (they were too many laps down in Australia for it to count as a finish).  Aston Martin classified in race is what you’re looking for.

Finally, score for any mention in the commentary of the elephant in the room – the Middle Eastern races that may have to be cancelled or moved.

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
• DRS Train
• 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
• Maiden Sprint win –  Verstappen, Russell, Piastri, Norris, Hamilton, 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!