The Portuguese Grand Prix will return to the Formula 1 World Championship in 2027 and 2028 at the Algarve International Autodrome (AIA), following an agreement between the Government and the sport’s promoters.
The announcement was made on Monday, 15 December, by the Minister for the Economy and Territorial Cohesion, Manuel Castro Almeida. The agreement was signed in London, although the exact date of the race will only be confirmed in June 2026, when the 2027 World Championship calendar is finalised. Organisers expect the event to be included in the European leg of the season, in the spring.
“We are aligning ourselves with the announcement being made in London at this moment, that Portugal will once again be part of the Formula 1 Grand Prix calendar from 2027, at the Algarve International Autodrome, with a further return already planned for 2028,” the minister said.
The government estimates an economic impact of no less than €140 million in each of the two years. According to the minister, the cost to the Portuguese state will be lower than the tax revenue generated by the economic activity associated with staging the race.
Manuel Castro Almeida justified the absence of detailed figures by citing a “duty of confidentiality” at a time when the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) is still negotiating with other countries. He assured that the figures would be made public at a later stage and stressed that “there will be no negative balance for the state”.
“All the numbers will be public and everything will be fully transparent. The amounts involved are substantially lower than those I mentioned. The volume of taxes collected as a result of the increase in economic activity, estimated at around €140 million per race, will exceed the cost borne by the state,” he said.
According to the minister, the Portuguese Grand Prix is expected to attract around 200,000 visitors to the Algarve each year and draw crowds of close to 150,000 spectators, more than half of them from abroad. The race is estimated to reach a global audience of around 920 million viewers.
“It is a major opportunity to enhance the Algarve’s profile as a diversified tourist destination and to boost the local economy. It also represents exceptional promotion of Portugal’s image to nearly one billion people,” Manuel Castro Almeida said.
The minister argued that Portugal has the capacity to be part of “a very restricted club” of countries that host a Formula 1 race, and he surprisingly acknowledged that current constraints at national airports would pose “a serious problem” if the Grand Prix were to be held immediately.
“If, at the time of the races, in 2027, everything were as it is today, it would be a serious problem. We are confident that by 2027 the situation at airport entry points will be significantly improved,” he said.
These will be the 19th and 20th editions of the Portuguese Grand Prix. The Algarve will host the race once again after earlier events held in 1958 and 1960 on the Boavista circuit in Porto, the 1959 edition in Monsanto, Lisbon, and the period between 1984 and 1996 at the Estoril Circuit in Cascais.
Formula 1 returned to Portugal in 2020 after a 24-year absence from the world calendar. Portimão hosted two consecutive editions of the race.
The UK’s Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time world champion and then a Mercedes driver, won the two most recent races held on Portuguese soil.
