How Adelaide comeback plan to replace Saudi and Bahrain GPs fell apart

The conflict in the Middle East has forced F1 chiefs to shelve, for now, plans to race in Jeddah and Sakhir - where pre-season testing took place last February - leaving a month-long gap across April.

Speaking on Triple M, Malinauskas said he did everything he could to convince Domenicali to bring Adelaide back, but admitted the plan ultimately failed to materialise.

“As soon as it became obvious that they were not going to be racing in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, I was like, ‘Hello! Is this an opportunity?’ So I hit the phone and asked.

F1 Academy had originally been set to run its second round after the Shanghai opener on March 13–15, joining Formula 1 from April 17 to 19. With that event now off the calendar, the gap will instead be filled by revising the format of upcoming rounds.

To compensate for the lost races, the all-female series will adopt a three-race weekend structure in Montreal and Austin, which are rounds two and five of the season. This adjustment allows the championship to retain its planned 14-race schedule.

Under the revised format, an additional race will be added alongside the Reverse Grid and Feature races. The grid for this extra contest will be determined by each driver’s second-fastest qualifying lap, introducing a more strategic dimension to the single 30-minute qualifying session, where drivers will need to deliver two strong laps rather than just one.