Formula One Season Bingo

Having bingo cards to complete as you watch Formula 1 with friends or family can really add to the entertainment value, whether it’s the whole season card or our Formula 1 Race Weekend bingo card (which is updated with fresh items for each circuit).  Not only can it help to liven up a boring race, it can make late season races much more exciting to watch even if – as happened in 2022 and 2023 – someone runs away with the title with several races still to go, because there’s still bingo card events to look out for.

2026 is a season with radically new technical regs.  We say goodbye (and many, perhaps most, would say good riddance) to DRS, the MGU-H and ground effect aero, and hello to:

• Shorter, narrower, lighter cars
• Active Aero – letting drivers make on the fly adjustments to front and rear wings
• Overtake Mode – only available if within a second of the car in front
• The Boost button – activate maximum power from engine and battery (to overtake or defend)
• A shift in the power balance between petrol and electric so they are about 50/50 (which is more relevant to road car development)
• The petrol engine will run on Advanced Sustainable Fuels
• Enhanced driver safety including a strengthening of the roll hoop to take 23% more load

Will these changes liven up the racing with more overtaking?  We hope so!

There’s only one rookie on the grid for the 2026 season – Arvid Lindblad making his debut for Racing Bulls while Isack Hadjar steps up to Red Bull – but there’s also a new team, Cadillac.  And with a rules reset, everyone will be feeling their way, not just the rookie.  Early rumours are that the Mercedes and Red Bull engines are the most advanced but we won’t know the true state of affairs till we see the cars on track at the official rounds of pre season testing in early February (there’s also some testing in January but it’s private).

What’s On The Formula 1 2026 Season Bingo Card?

We’ve kept most of the items from last year. DRS malfunction has been removed for obvious reasons and Grand Chelem (pole, win, fastest lap and led every lap) has been changed to hat trick (pole, win and fastest lap) as it was too infrequent.  We also say goodbye to Hülkenberg podium for the very best of reasons! A few things have been added (and there may be more to come after we see the new cars in action).

• Cadillac in Q3
• Cadillac points
• Transponder or radio malfunction – the transponder locates the car on track for the timing tower and if the radio fails, the team have to use a pit board for driver comms. Both these failures occured in 2025, the former to George Russell and the latter to Alex Albon.
• Stoppage in all qualy segments – because of red or yellow flags
• Pitlane to points
• DSQ for technical infringement – we thought this was too unlikely to add last year after George Russell lost his Spa win that way in 2024. But then Ferrari and Mclaren said “hold my beer”!

All British podium is staying for another year because one can dream – and if you don’t want it (or any other item) just remove before you generate your cards.  Driver on 9+ penalty points is staying but you can have it for free (Ollie Bearman starts the season with 10 penalty points).

If you think there’s anything that should be on the 2026 card but isn’t, you can always add your own items before generating your cards.

Events That Definitely Weren’t On Last Year’s Bingo Card

One of the wonderful things about Formula One is that occasionally, really crazy stuff happens.  Here’s just a few of the wild things that happened during the 2025 season that we WON’T be putting on the 2026 bingo card because they are just too nuts:

• Any team double DSQ – which happened twice; Ferrari in China and Mclaren in Las Vegas
• 5+ red flags in qualy – one of the places this has happened, Imola, is now off the calendar, but Baku isn’t!
• Both drivers from a team fail to set a time in the same qualy segment (Mercedes at Monaco, Antonelli because his car was too damaged to run in Q2 and Russell because of a mechanical failure)
• Pitlane to podium – the more extreme sibling of pitlane to points, surely only Max Verstappen could pull this one off (and did, at Interlagos)
• Trackside fire – yes, this happened at China AGAIN (5 times, in fact)

Our favourite crazy thing ever is still substitute driver finishes ahead of one or more full time drivers in the championship standings!  Oliver Bearman scored 7 points in just 3 appearances in 2024, to finish 18th of 24 ahead of both Kick Sauber drivers (who competed in all races).

What Happens If I Miss A Race?

If you miss a race – or indeed any part of a race weekend – check back here a couple of days after the race to catch up with what needs to be marked off.  You can also start playing part way though the season – either mark off all of the things that have already happened straight away or remove from the list before generating your cards.

Formula 1 2026 Season Calendar

Round 1 – Australia March 6th – 8th

The 2025 Australian Grand Prix was a peril ridden, incident filled damp race that went right down to the wire and gave us one of the funniest radio exchanges of all time when Charles Leclerc complained that his seat was full of water.  “Must be the water”.

2026’s race will be the first under the new regulations so is bound to be exciting.

Round 2 – China March 13th – 15th (Sprint)

There were complaints on social media that the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix was boring (although no-one complained about the Sprint and seeing Lewis Hamilton take his first and so far only win in red).  It’s true there were no stoppages and very few incidents, but if (like me) you enjoy pit stop strategy, tyre management and drivers vs damaged cars (Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, Kimi Antonelli) you won’t have found it boring at all.

Last year’s race also saw a double DSQ for Ferrari, very unusually for two different tech infringements.

Round 3 – Japan March 27th – 29th

The 2025 Japanese Grand Prix turned out to be almost a complete snore fest. The top 6 finished in their grid positions, which has never before happened at a permanent circuit.  The only bit of excitement was musical chairs at Red Bull.  Let’s hope the new regulations shake things up a bit.

Round 4 – Bahrain April 10th – 12th

This year Bahrain is again in April not March because of the timing of Ramadan. Overtakes, collisions and many different tyre strategies made this race exciting – apart from at the very front where Oscar Piastri simply drove away from pole.

Round 5 – Saudi Arabia April 17th – 19th

Jeddah also retains its slightly later positioning on the calendar, which is a good thing as who would fancy tackling this extremely unforgiving street course under new regulations without a few races elsewhere first!

Round 6  – Miami May 1st 3rd (Sprint)

Miami hosts a Sprint for the third year running.

Round 7 – Canada May 22nd – 24th May (Sprint)

The Canada race moves earlier in the season, taking the slot previously occupied by Imola (which sadly has left the calendar).  This reduces the amount of air freighting that has to be done as there’s no European race in between the two in North America.  Last year’s Canada race was a slow burner with all the excitement towards the end including that teammate collision.  This year, there’s a Sprint as well as a Grand Prix.

Round 8 – Monaco June 5th – 7th

The last two years round the streets of Monte Carlo have been races to forget. In 2024, if you dozed off in the middle of this race and missed all but the first and last few laps you honestly wouldn’t have missed anything important as there were hardly any overtakes and the top 10 cars all finished in their grid positions.  In 2025, the two mandatory pit stops that were introduced were supposed to spice things up but oops, the race became all about intentionally driving very slowly to hold up the cars behind and give your teammate a gap the size of a pit stop. Not what anyone wants to see from F1 – let’s hope the new regulations give us an actual race this time.

Round 9 – Barcelona-Catalunya June 12th – 14th

The race formerly known as just Spain is generally considered to be one of the less exciting races on the calendar but it was certainly exciting in 2025 – if you like strategy battles and major controversy, that is.  Scene of Max Verstappen well and truly losing his cool.

Round 10 – Austria June 26th – 28th

Austria was always the race where everyone and their dog got track limits penalties, but those issues have magically been fixed with the addition of some very tiny (but very effective) gravel traps.

Round 11 – Great Britain July 3rd – 5th (Sprint)

Silverstone is one of the all time great tracks and is super exciting whether it’s wet or dry, and this year there will be FIVE British drivers on the grid all competing for different teams, and the Sprint making its return.  It will be very hard to top last year’s race, though, as that’s where we FINALLY saw Nico Hülkenberg get that long awaited and much deserved podium. Everyone LOVED that.

Round 12 – Belgium July 17th – 19th

Spa is another one of the absolute all time classic tracks but last year’s race was on the dull side once the track dried up; the race was red flagged on the formation lap due to concerns about spray and visibility and eventually got properly started an hour and 20 minutes later.  Most of the passes were in the pits.

Round 13 – Hungary July 24th – 26th

Hungary has a reputation as being somewhere it’s difficult to overtake, and the mix of one stop and two stop strategies used in 2025 certainly illustrated that in the ground effect era catching was one thing and overtaking another!  Let’s hope the new regulations deliver!

Round 14 – The Netherlands August 21st – 23rd (Sprint)

The Dutch Grand Prix will leave the calendar after 2026 so this is your last chance to see it. It signs off in style with a Sprint weekend.  Last year’s race certainly delivered some drama, with the weather uncertain all weekend, multiple safety cars and a double dose of trackside despair!  The photos of Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris after their respective DNFs certainly fitted the bill.

Round 15 – Italy September 4th -6th

Last year’s Monza race was the fastest ever, in terms both of speed and elapsed time, but VERY far from being the most exciting (apart from the first few laps).  While the race itself was not a thriller, the Mclaren team orders to Piastri to let Norris past after their pit stop blunder made the newspapers all over the world and not in a good way.

Round 16 – Spain (Madrid) September 11th – 13th

The European leg of the 2026 season ends at a brand new venue, the Madring in Spain’s capital city.

Round 17 – Azerbaijan September 24th – 26th

Baku never disappoints and  last year’s race weekend was full of drama with a record breaking SIX red flags during qualy, Max Verstappen pulling off a Grand Chelem and Carlos Sainz getting a podium for Williams with the lucky charm of Sparkles the Unicorn on his helmet.  We also saw one of the worst championship leader nightmare weekends ever, plus a super cute paddock cat.

Round 18 – Singapore October 9th – 11th (Sprint)

In 2025 Singapore once again went off with no stoppages and no retirements in the race, though the closeness of the championship battle made it a bit more interesting than the 2024 race.  This year, it’s going to be a Sprint weekend.

Round 19 – USA (COTA) October 23rd – 25th

Almost all of the excitement at COTA last year took place at the first corner of the Sprint. And there’s no Sprint this year so again, we pin our hopes on the new regulations.

Round 20 – Mexico October 30th – November 1st

2025 gave us a much more exciting race than we usually have at this venue, from the first corner shenanigans to the tightness of the championship race!

Round 21 – Brazil November 6th – 8th

COTA, Mexico and São Paulo are back to being a triple header this year, but the strain on team personnel will be somewhat lessened by there being no Sprints amongst them. Even without a Sprint, Interlagos can ALWAYS be relied upon to produce a thrilling race weekend and while the 2025 race was not quite as bananas as the 2024 race, it was still a thriller with lots of overtaking due to tyre offsets and Max Verstappen (aided by a brand new engine and several sets of brand new tyres) charging from pitlane to podium.

Round 22 – Las Vegas November 19th – 21st

Who would have thought it would be Las Vegas where wet weather tyres were needed in qualy?  And who could forget the double DSQ for Mclaren that kept the title race wide open?

Round 23 – Qatar November 27th – 29th

In 2025 there was very little actual racing or overtaking in this Grand Prix with all the entertainment coming from the imposition of a 25 lap limit on each set of tyres, Mclaren’s inexplicable strategy decisions and Red Bull team members making ill considered remarks about Kimi Antonelli that unleashed a barrage of abuse on social media.  Again, we hope the new rule set will change this!

Round 24 – Abu Dhabi December 4th – 6th

Yas Marina is no longer the snorefest it used to be since track changes improved the racing.  2025’s race was compulsive viewing as for the first time since 2021, the drivers’ world championship went right down to the wire.  Will it do so in 2026?  It all depends on how many teams hit the ground running with the new regs!

How To Use the 2026 F1 Season Bingo Cards

1. Tap To Start
2. Add any extra events you want to appear on your cards to the list and remove any you don’t like or don’t want.
3. We suggest keeping the grid size at 5×5 to ensure there’s enough items to hold everyone’s interest all the way through the season, but you can reduce to 4×4 or 3×3 if you like.
4. Generate Bingo Cards
5. To play for the entire season, it’s probably easiest to use printed cards.  You can generate a set to print by entering the number you want in the Custom Number To Print box.  It’s best to print several more than you need in case your watch party grows as the season progresses, and also so that people can pick a card they think will be fun to play (e.g. Antonelli + 2nd Red Bull Driver podium in the centre square if you like a challenge, driver argues about team orders if you don’t!)
6. Generate Printable Cards; this takes you to a page with all your cards on which you can print right away, or save the URL for later use when you are near a printer.
7. Alternatively you can invite through email; this sends each of your chosen recipients a link to their own unique card. The cards persist, so you can mark off a square and see it change colour, and find it still marked off the next time you visit.  This might not work for the entire season (because of phone or browser software updates etc) so we suggest taking a screenshot after each weekend just in case.
8. Watch and enjoy!  The winner is the first to mark everything off on their card, or if no-one manages to do that, the person with the most lines completed when the season ends on December 6th with the Abu Dhabi race.