Sepang 2026 · Stories
The Home Race Nobody Was Allowed to Plan
By Will Tygart · September 28, 2026
Read the full name of the circuit, and the story tells itself: the PETRONAS Sepang International Circuit.
Petronas isn't just a sponsor with its name on the grandstands. It is the Title and Technical Partner of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team — the company whose name is on the car, on the engine deal, on the track itself. So when the cars roll out on Friday, understand what you're watching: Mercedes, leading both championships, racing a home Grand Prix in everything but the official title.
Here's the part that gets me. This homecoming was, not long ago, officially not happening.
On January 31, 2024, Petronas issued a flat denial. Reports had suggested the company was in talks to engineer Formula 1's return to Sepang. The statement could not have been clearer: there have been no discussions on bringing the sport back to the Petronas Sepang International Circuit. Full stop.
Two and a half years later, the sport is back at the Petronas Sepang International Circuit, and the Petronas-backed team arrives leading the championship. Whatever changed, it changed completely.
To their credit, Mercedes has leaned all the way into it. The team shared an Instagram post titled "Magic in Malaysia: Sepang Memories" — fifteen photographs from the track's Grand Prix years — and they weren't alone. Ferrari, Red Bull, and Audi all joined in with Malaysia-themed artwork as the return approached. The whole paddock, it turns out, had been waiting for an excuse to get nostalgic.
And for the two men driving the silver cars, the nostalgia is borrowed. George Russell and Kimi Antonelli both entered Formula 1 after the 2017 race — neither has ever turned a racing lap at Sepang. They belong to the generation that grew up watching this track's wet-weather chaos and sweeping fast corners on television, and learned it since on simulators and archive footage. Both have said they're delighted and eager to race here for the first time.
Sit with that for a second. Kimi Antonelli — nineteen years old, leading the drivers' championship by sixty-six points with eight rounds to go — is about to fight for a title on a circuit he has never raced. His teammate, fresh off a win in Baku, is in the same boat. The two fastest drivers of the season are rookies at the home race.
Former Malaysian F1 driver Alex Yoong, who knows this place better than almost anyone, told Bernama he expects the paddock to love being back: "The drivers will enjoy it, and largely the whole paddock likes coming to Malaysia for the Grand Prix."
He's right, and the reason is simple. Some races are events. Sepang, for Mercedes and Petronas, is a homecoming — the one nobody was allowed to plan, arriving right on schedule anyway.