Major F1 concern raised: First 2027 race sees staggering numbers of unsold tickets

Formula 1 has long been touted as a sport going from strength-to-strength, but recent conflict in the Middle East has thrown the championship into disarray.

It’s already had one race in the region cancelled and another moved to a country almost four thousand miles - with races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi still in doubt.

Now, tens of thousands of grandstand tickets are currently unsold for its season opener in Bahrain, with the Middle East still facing significant tensions and high likelihood of violent conflict flaring up again.

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Vast amount of tickets still available for F1’s 2027 season opener.

The 2026 Formula 1 season has been massively disrupted by continued conflict in the Middle East.

The USA’s bombing of Iran in the late February - and the latter’s response in attacking Israel - saw two of this championship’s early races, in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, postponed.

A replacement for Bahrain was found by running its later in the year race in Malaysia, but Saudi was ultimately cancelled.

However tensions in the region still remain, with Houthi rebels in the Yemen attacking airports in Saudi Arabia (with a number of fatalities as a result), and threatening to shoot down planes that fly through its airspace.

With F1 waiting until close to the season-closing races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to see if travelling there was feasible, it now appears as if those events are going to go ahead.

However, many in the paddock are still thought to be uncomfortable with the idea of travelling to the Middle East, particularly with rumours persisting that the USA is set to attack Iran again.

It appears that sentiment is shared by many F1 fans too.

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F1 fans staying away from the Bahrain GP, one of the cheapest races to attend on the calendar.

The Australian GP in Melbourne has been F1's season-opener for the last two years, but Bahrain is supposed to be returning to the opening slot for 2027.

However, there might not be many there to see it. The circuit’s website shows that out of the 50,000 weekend grand stand tickets available for season-opener, 31,875 (63.75%) are still available, raising questions about a poorly-attended season-opener for a championship that is supposedly in rude health.

The Bahrain International Circuit is now promoting its second ‘early bird’ offer for the race of 15%, having previously offered a 20% discount.

The race is already the cheapest to attend on the calendar, with a three-day ticket for this year’s originally-scheduled race having started at £98.

Currently, the cheapest three-day ticket available for the 2027 Bahrain GP is £117.20.

The total capacity of Bahrain's Sakhir International Circuit is 70,000, but its highest ever GP race-day attendance (achieved in 2025) is barely half that at 37,700.

If the Bahrain GP even goes ahead this year, it currently looks unlikely to hit that height again.

It was the worst attended race of 2025 with 105,000 spectators there across the three days - the British GP was the best-attended last year, with half a million people visiting over the weekend.

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