Formula 1 confirmed this week that the Monaco Grand Prix will host a sprint race for the first time in its history, as part of a newly unveiled 24-race calendar for the 2027 season that expands the sprint format from six events to 10.
The 2027 Formula 1 Louis Vuitton Grand Prix de Monaco is scheduled to run from Thursday, June 3, to Sunday, June 6, with the Automobile Club de Monaco confirming the change directly on its own event listings. Monaco has never hosted a sprint since the format was first introduced in 2021.
Under the sprint structure, Friday will feature a single practice session followed by sprint qualifying, with Saturday bringing both the sprint race itself and traditional Q1, Q2 and Q3 qualifying to set the grid for Sunday’s main Grand Prix, a notable departure from the three full practice sessions drivers are typically afforded around Monaco’s unforgiving street circuit.
The addition has been widely described as the most surprising element of the entire 2027 calendar reveal, given Monaco’s long-standing reputation as one of the most difficult circuits on the calendar for overtaking. According to The Race, one of the primary motivations behind the move was to introduce greater unpredictability across the full race weekend, since drivers will go into Saturday’s sprint qualifying with far less practice time than usual, raising the possibility of a sprint grid that looks meaningfully different from Sunday’s eventual starting order.
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem said the 2027 calendar reflected the global appeal and continued growth of the sport, pointing to the return of Portugal and Türkiye alongside the expanded sprint programme as evidence of a calendar balancing tradition, innovation and fan engagement. F1 has pointed to viewership data to justify the wider rollout of the format, citing sprint weekends drawing 12 percent higher total viewership than non-sprint weekends, sprint qualifying proving up to three times more popular with fans than standard free practice, and the majority of sprint-weekend attendees and fans saying the format adds genuine value to a race weekend.
Monaco joins Bahrain, Australia, Japan and Abu Dhabi as first-time sprint hosts on the 2027 calendar, with the season opening in Bahrain on March 14 and closing with a sprint-format double-header in Qatar and Abu Dhabi in December. No American race will host a sprint next season, though Canada retains its slot as a sprint weekend for a second consecutive year.