Nineteen races between 1999 and 2017, a circuit that rewrote how Formula 1 tracks are designed, and some of the wildest weather the sport has ever raced in — the full story of F1 in Malaysia.
Formula 1 arrived in Malaysia in October 1999 at a circuit unlike anything the sport had seen. Sepang was built from nothing on land near Kuala Lumpur’s new international airport, purpose-designed for Formula 1 by the German architect Hermann Tilke, and it introduced ideas that would define track design for the next quarter of a century: enormous width, long straights ending in heavy braking zones, vast run-off areas, and grandstands positioned to see multiple corners at once. Almost every circuit built for Formula 1 since owes something to what was tried here first.
The race itself was extraordinary. Michael Schumacher returned from the broken leg he had suffered at Silverstone earlier that season, took pole by a startling margin, and then spent the afternoon as a wingman — deliberately holding up Mika Häkkinen so that his Ferrari team-mate Eddie Irvine could win and keep his title hopes alive. Hours later both Ferraris were disqualified over the dimensions of their bargeboards, handing the championship to Häkkinen, only for the FIA’s appeal court to overturn the exclusion the following week and hand the result back again. It was a chaotic introduction, and a fitting one.
Sepang settled into an early-season slot in the 2000s and became a happy hunting ground for Ferrari, who took seven wins there in all — more than any other team. Michael Schumacher won in 2000, 2001 and 2004; Kimi Räikkönen added another in 2008 and Fernando Alonso in 2012, before Sebastian Vettel completed the set in 2015 with the first victory of his Ferrari career. Between them, Ralf Schumacher took Williams’ only Malaysian win in 2002 and Räikkönen won for McLaren in 2003.
The 2001 race is the one from that era that people still talk about. A violent downpour arrived early and pitched both Ferraris off the circuit on the same lap. Rather than react conventionally, the team brought both cars in together and fitted intermediate tyres far earlier than anyone else — a call that looked disastrous for several laps and then, as the rain intensified, turned into a comfortable one-two. It set the pattern for Sepang: races here are usually decided by whoever reads the sky correctly.
No circuit of the modern era has been shaped by weather quite like Sepang. In 2009, a monsoon of such intensity arrived late in the afternoon that the race was red-flagged after 31 laps and never restarted. Because less than three-quarters of the distance had been completed, only half points were awarded — Jenson Button took the win for Brawn GP in what became a significant staging post in his championship season.
Three years later, in 2012, Fernando Alonso produced one of the finest drives of his career in another rain-hit race, dragging a Ferrari that was nowhere near the fastest car on the grid to victory in conditions that flattened the performance gap between teams. And in 2013, the weather played its part again in a race that would be remembered for entirely different reasons.
Running first and second late in the 2013 race, Red Bull instructed their drivers to hold station and bring the cars home — a coded message, “Multi 21,” meaning car two should finish ahead of car one, with Mark Webber leading Sebastian Vettel. Vettel ignored it, attacked his team-mate, and took the win after a tense scrap. The podium afterwards was one of the most uncomfortable in the sport’s history, and the fallout defined the relationship between the two drivers for the rest of Webber’s time at the team. For many fans it remains the single most memorable moment Sepang produced.
Lewis Hamilton led the 2016 race by more than twenty seconds and needed the win to keep his title fight with Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg alive. With fifteen laps left, his engine failed in a burst of flame on the approach to Turn 1 and the race was gone. Daniel Ricciardo inherited the win ahead of Max Verstappen for a Red Bull one-two, while Rosberg — spun round at the first corner by Sebastian Vettel on the opening lap — recovered all the way to third. Mechanical failure at Sepang is rarely a coincidence: the heat here finds every weakness in a power unit.
The final Malaysian Grand Prix, in October 2017, went to a 20-year-old Max Verstappen, who passed Hamilton early and controlled the race from there for the second win of his career. Sebastian Vettel set the circuit’s outright lap record on his way from the back of the grid to fourth — a 1:34.080 that still stands as the fastest lap ever run at Sepang by a Formula 1 car. Nobody expected the record to survive nine years, but there has been nobody there to beat it.
The decision was financial rather than sporting. Hosting a Grand Prix cost the Malaysian government a very large annual fee, and by the mid-2010s the return had stopped justifying it. Crowds had fallen sharply — a circuit with room for well over a hundred thousand spectators was drawing a fraction of that — and the arrival of the Singapore night race in 2008 gave regional fans a more glamorous alternative just a short flight away. In 2017 the government confirmed it would not renew, and Formula 1 left after 19 races. Malaysia has repeatedly ruled out paying to come back since, which is precisely what makes 2026 so unusual: the race returns without Malaysia having to buy it.
1999 Eddie Irvine — Ferrari
2000 Michael Schumacher — Ferrari
2001 Michael Schumacher — Ferrari
2002 Ralf Schumacher — Williams
2003 Kimi Räikkönen — McLaren
2004 Michael Schumacher — Ferrari
2005 Fernando Alonso — Renault
2006 Giancarlo Fisichella — Renault
2007 Fernando Alonso — McLaren
2008 Kimi Räikkönen — Ferrari
2009 Jenson Button — Brawn GP (half points)
2010 Sebastian Vettel — Red Bull
2011 Sebastian Vettel — Red Bull
2012 Fernando Alonso — Ferrari
2013 Sebastian Vettel — Red Bull
2014 Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes
2015 Sebastian Vettel — Ferrari
2016 Daniel Ricciardo — Red Bull
2017 Max Verstappen — Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel holds the record with four Malaysian Grand Prix victories — 2010, 2011 and 2013 with Red Bull, then 2015 with Ferrari. Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso share the next-most with three apiece. Ferrari is the most successful constructor at the circuit with seven wins, ahead of Red Bull’s five. Four of those Red Bull victories came in a six-year stretch that closed out Sepang’s time on the calendar.
The 2026 race carries none of this history in its name — officially it is the Bahrain Grand Prix, relocated for one year only. But the circuit does not care what the trophy says. The heat, the width, the hairpin between the straights and the storms that build over the Selangor hills all remain exactly as they were, waiting for a generation of cars that has never seen them. Read the 2026 event guide →