CANADIAN GP SHIFTS TO MAY FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Formula One’s Canadian Grand Prix will move from June to May starting in 2026, aligning with the sport’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and streamline the race calendar.  

The resched­ul­ing, announced Mon­day, elim­i­nates an extra transat­lantic cross­ing in the cur­rent 24-race line­up. Tra­di­tion­al­ly held in June, the Cana­di­an GP will now be paired with Miami’s race, which takes place ear­li­er in the sea­son.  

This change is part of For­mu­la One’s broad­er strat­e­gy to group races by region, min­i­miz­ing trav­el dis­tances for teams and equip­ment, a key con­trib­u­tor to car­bon emis­sions.  

The Cir­cuit Gilles Vil­leneuve, which host­ed this year’s race on June 9, will see its ear­li­est start since 1991. The deci­sion does come with some trade-offs: May tem­per­a­tures in Mon­tre­al are sig­nif­i­cant­ly cool­er than in June, which could impact fan and team expe­ri­ences.  

Ste­fano Domeni­cali, For­mu­la One’s CEO, expressed grat­i­tude to Cana­di­an stake­hold­ers for sup­port­ing the move. “The cal­en­dar change enhances sus­tain­abil­i­ty and eas­es logis­tics for our teams and per­son­nel. It’s anoth­er step toward our Net Zero by 2030 goal,” he said.  

Jean-Philippe Par­adis, CEO of Octane Rac­ing Group, the event pro­mot­er, called the shift a com­mit­ment to sus­tain­abil­i­ty and an oppor­tu­ni­ty to extend Montreal’s sum­mer sea­son.  

Mean­while, oth­er races, includ­ing the Mona­co Grand Prix, are adjust­ing dates to fur­ther align with this eco-friend­ly cal­en­dar redesign.