Thailand has become a genuine motorsport country on the back of one venue. Chang International Circuit at Buriram is 4.554 km, 12 corners, a 1,000-metre straight, and the only FIA Grade 1 circuit in Thailand. It has opened the MotoGP season in 2025 and 2026 and will do so again on 5 to 7 March 2027; the 2026 opener drew a record 228,228 spectators. Below that, the picture thins fast: only one other Thai circuit holds any FIA licence — the Bangsaen street circuit at Grade 3 — there is no WorldSBK round here in 2026, and the Bangkok Formula 1 story is a ministerial visit, not an agreement.
Chang International Circuit, in numbers that are actually published
An oddity worth stating up front, because it shapes everything below: the circuit publishes almost nothing about itself. Its own site’s about page is unconfigured theme boilerplate, describing a basketball club and carrying placeholder text. So the specification here comes from the FIA and from Dorna, the MotoGP rights holder, not from the venue. Where the circuit does speak for itself, it says only that it is built to FIA standard and could support Formula 1 — with no grade number attached.
| Attribute | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Lap distance | 4.554 km | FIA licensed-circuits list; MotoGP timing documents |
| Corners | 12 (5 left, 7 right) | motogp.com |
| Longest straight | 1,000 m | motogp.com |
| Track width | 12 m (FIA reference width 13 m) | motogp.com; FIA |
| Built | 2014 | motogp.com |
| Designer | Hermann Tilke | motogp.com |
| Capacity | 100,000 | motogp.com |
| Distance from Bangkok | approx. 410 km north-east | motogp.com |
The 4.554 km figure is confirmed twice over: it is the length on the FIA’s own licensed-circuits list, and it appears in Dorna’s own timing documents, where the MotoGP classification of 26 laps totals 118.404 km — which divides exactly by 4.554.
One official Dorna document — the 2026 Moto3 grid sheet — prints the circuit as 4,423 m. That contradicts every other official document and is arithmetically impossible against its own header, which gives 19 laps as 86.526 km, dividing to 4.554. It is a typo in one PDF. We mention it because it is the kind of figure that gets scraped and repeated forever.
The Grand Prix, and why the opener matters
MotoGP’s own calendar puts the 2026 Grand Prix of Thailand at round one, 27 February to 1 March 2026. Its own announcement of 31 July 2026 confirms that the 2027 championship begins at Buriram from 5 to 7 March 2027, making it Thailand’s third consecutive season opener. The event carries a sponsor name, the PT Grand Prix of Thailand.
The attendance figure is the one that explains the rest. MotoGP’s own announcement records a record crowd of 228,228 at the 2026 opener, and the circuit’s own Thai-language news describes it as the largest it has recorded. Buriram is a province of roughly 400,000 people in the north-east; the Grand Prix weekend is the largest single event in the Thai sporting calendar by attendance, and it visibly reorganises the local economy for a week.
MotoGP debuted here in 2018, four years after the circuit was built. Which brings us to the thing this page will not do: quote you a ticket price. Official MotoGP ticketing for the Thailand round showed no tickets available and no on-sale date when we checked, and the circuit’s local ticketing link returned nothing readable. Prices circulate; none of them is from the promoter.
And there is no World Superbike round in Thailand in 2026. WorldSBK’s own calendar lists twelve rounds and Buriram is not among them. It has hosted the championship in past seasons, which is why the assumption sticks.
Every Thai circuit with an FIA licence, which is two
The FIA publishes its own list of licensed circuits worldwide. We read the most recent published edition, dated 31 March 2026, and searched it for Thailand. There are exactly two rows.
| Circuit | Province | Length | FIA status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chang International Circuit | Mueang Buriram, Buriram | 4.554 km | FIA Grade 1 (list of 31 Mar 2026) |
| Bangsaen street circuit | Chonburi | 3.74 km | FIA Grade 3 (list of 31 Mar 2026) |
| Kaeng Krachan Circuit | Kaeng Krachan, Phetchaburi | 2.912 / 2.400 / 1.004 km | Not on the FIA list |
Bangsaen, in Chonburi, is a temporary street circuit — 3.74 km, FIA Grade 3, reference width 8.2 m. It is the closest thing Thailand has to a Macau or a Monaco: a proper city-street event on public roads. Its own website domains no longer resolve, so the FIA row is all we can confirm about it.
Kaeng Krachan Circuit is in Phetchaburi, not the Pattaya area where people often place it. Its own site describes over 150 rai of land, three configurations of 2.912 km, 2.400 km and 1.004 km, and more than 18 metres of elevation change — which makes it genuinely interesting among Thai circuits, most of which are flat. It is not on the FIA list.
First, both Thai licence expiries on that list have already passed — 7 July 2026 for Buriram and 27 June 2026 for Bangsaen — and the FIA has not published a newer edition. So the honest phrasing is “listed as Grade 1 on the FIA’s most recent published list”, not “currently licensed”. Second, we could find no public FIM list of homologated circuits with grades. Hosting a MotoGP round necessarily implies FIM homologation, but no grade letter is published anywhere we could reach, so we are not stating one.
The national championship you can actually go and watch
Below the world championships sits Thailand Super Series, run by Racing Spirit Co., Ltd. From the championship’s own standings pages, its 2026 classes are GT3, GTC, GTM, GT4, Touring, Pickup and Eco, alongside two one-make series, Eighty-Six Challenge Thailand and Porsche Sprint Trophy Thailand.
The Pickup class is worth pausing on, because it is the most Thai thing on any motorsport entry list in the world and it reflects what people here actually drive. Eco is at the other end of the scale entirely.
One rule from the series’ own race information page tells you a lot about the scale it operates at: if a class has fewer than seven cars registered, the organiser refunds the entry fee and the class does not run. The series also races outside Thailand — round three of 2026 was at Sepang in Malaysia on 22 and 23 August. We could not read its full calendar, which renders client-side.
Racing here yourself: the RAAT licence
Thailand’s FIA-recognised national sporting authority is the Royal Automobile Association of Thailand, on Ratchadapisek Road in Chatuchak, Bangkok. It is confirmed as an FIA member club on the FIA’s own site, and it publishes its licence requirements openly, which is more than most of Thai sport does.
What a foreign applicant needs, from RAAT’s own page:
- a certified true copy of your passport;
- a No Objection Certificate;
- a medical certificate;
- an ECG certificate if you are 45 or older;
- two photographs (1 inch or 2 inch);
- parental consent if you are under age.
RAAT states that with complete documentation the licence takes about seven days. It accepts online applications and publishes downloadable forms for membership, racing entry, team manager, consent, the annual medical examination and a visa certification request — that last one being a useful signal that it is used to foreign competitors. RAAT also runs Kart of Championship Thailand, RAAT Endurance and RAAT Rally.
What it does not publish is the fee. There is a heading for licence fees on the page but the figures are not in readable text, so we cannot give you a number. And note the usual line: competing is one thing, being paid to drive, instruct or run a team is work and needs a work permit.
Formula 1 in Bangkok: what has actually happened
There has been a lot of coverage of a Thai Grand Prix. Here is the entirety of what an official source says.
The Ministry of Tourism and Sports published its own account of the minister attending the Monaco Grand Prix and meeting the chief executive of the Formula One Group to discuss cooperation and the opportunity to bring Formula 1 to Thailand in future. The ministry’s own phrasing is conditional — if Thailand can host. The statement names no venue, no street circuit, no date, no budget, no signed agreement and no cabinet approval.
That is an exploratory visit. It is not a bid, a contract or a confirmed race. If Thailand does host, the FIA list above tells you where it would have to happen or what would have to be built: Formula 1 requires a Grade 1 circuit, and Thailand currently has exactly one.
Getting to Buriram
Buriram is roughly 410 km north-east of Bangkok, per MotoGP’s own circuit page, in Isan. It is served by the north-eastern railway line and by Buriram Airport, and on a Grand Prix weekend both are heavily loaded.
We would like to give you train times and a list of airlines, and we cannot. The State Railway of Thailand’s site was completely unreachable and the Department of Airports’ Buriram minisite, which is the government operator of the airport and would carry the airline list, refused every automated request. Rather than copy a schedule from a travel blog — the kind of thing that strands somebody at a station — we are pointing you at trains and rail travel in Thailand and domestic flights, and telling you to book direct.
What we could not confirm
- Any MotoGP Thailand ticket price. Official ticketing was not open; the local agent page returned no readable prices.
- Chang International Circuit’s FIM homologation grade. The FIM publishes its circuit standards but no public list of homologated circuits with grades.
- Whether the FIA licences for Buriram and Bangsaen have been renewed past their listed July and June 2026 expiries. No newer FIA list is published.
- Any circuit specification from the circuit’s own site. Its about page is unconfigured theme boilerplate. Everything here is FIA or Dorna.
- Bira International Circuit (Pattaya) and Thailand Circuit (Nakhon Chai Si). Neither has a working official site — Bira’s domains do not resolve and Thailand Circuit’s serves a domain-parking page. Neither is on the FIA list. We are not describing either from third-party sources.
- Bangsaen Grand Prix’s own site. All plausible domains fail DNS. Only the FIA row is confirmed.
- Thailand Super Series’ full 2026 calendar. The calendar page renders client-side and returns nothing to a fetch.
- Track-day and arrive-and-drive karting pricing anywhere in Thailand. No Thai circuit we reached publishes its own rates; Kaeng Krachan’s track-day page gives a phone number and a LINE ID only.
- RAAT licence fees. The page has the heading; the figures are not in readable text.
- Trains to Buriram and airlines serving Buriram Airport. Both official operators’ sites were blocked to automated access.
Frequently asked questions
The 2026 Grand Prix of Thailand ran 27 February to 1 March 2026 as round one of the championship, and the 2027 edition is scheduled for 5 to 7 March 2027, again as the season opener, at Chang International Circuit in Buriram. Both dates come from MotoGP's own calendar and its own announcement. That 2027 race will be Thailand's third consecutive season opener, which is a genuinely unusual position for a circuit outside Europe to hold. MotoGP's own announcement also records the 2026 opener drawing a record crowd of 228,228, and the circuit's own Thai-language news calls it the largest attendance it has recorded.
We are not going to quote you a price, because no official source publishes one. The official MotoGP ticketing page for the Thailand event stated at the time we checked that tickets are not yet available and gave no on-sale date. The circuit's own site links Thai sales to a local ticketing agent whose page returned no readable pricing. Ticket prices for this race circulate widely online; none of them comes from the promoter or the circuit. Watch the official ticketing page and the circuit's own channels rather than paying a figure you read on a listicle.
Two, and only two. The FIA publishes its own list of licensed circuits, and its most recent published edition is dated 31 March 2026. Thailand appears twice: Buriram at Grade 1, 4.554 km, and the Bangsaen street circuit in Chonburi at Grade 3, 3.74 km. Every other Thai venue, including Kaeng Krachan Circuit in Phetchaburi, Bira in Pattaya and Thailand Circuit at Nakhon Chai Si, is absent from that list. Grade 1 is the top tier and is the grade Formula 1 requires. One honest caveat: the licence expiry shown against Buriram on that list is 7 July 2026, which has already passed, and the FIA has not published a newer list. Renewal has almost certainly happened given the 2027 race is scheduled, but it is not published, so the accurate statement is that Buriram is listed as Grade 1 on the FIA's most recent published list.
Not in 2026. WorldSBK's own calendar lists twelve rounds - Phillip Island, Algarve, Assen, Balaton, Most, Aragon, Misano, Donington, Magny-Cours, Cremona, Estoril and Jerez - and Buriram does not appear among them. Buriram has hosted WorldSBK in past seasons, which is why the assumption persists, but it is not on the current calendar.
Yes, and the Royal Automobile Association of Thailand, which is the FIA's recognised national sporting authority for Thailand, publishes exactly what it wants. For a foreign applicant: a certified true copy of your passport, a No Objection Certificate, a medical certificate, an ECG certificate if you are at least 45 years old, two photographs, and parental consent if you are under age. RAAT states that with complete documentation it takes roughly seven days to receive the licence, and it accepts online applications with downloadable forms for membership, racing entry, team manager and the annual medical examination. It does not publish the fee - the page has a heading for licence fees but the figures are not in readable text.
Nothing has been agreed, and we would treat any confident claim otherwise with suspicion. The only official Thai government source on this is the Ministry of Tourism and Sports' own account of the minister attending the Monaco Grand Prix and meeting the Formula One Group's chief executive to discuss the possibility of Thailand hosting in future. The ministry's own phrasing is conditional - if Thailand can host - and the statement names no venue, no street circuit, no date, no budget, no signed agreement and no cabinet approval. That is an exploratory ministerial visit. Everything beyond it that you may have read is press speculation, and we are labelling it as such rather than repeating it.
Related guides
- Buriram — the province the circuit is in, as a place to live.
- Chonburi — Bangsaen, and the eastern seaboard.
- Phetchaburi — where Kaeng Krachan Circuit actually is.
- Trains and rail travel — the north-eastern line to Isan.
- Domestic flights — the other way to reach a race weekend.
- Driving in Thailand — the road version, which is not a track.
- Buying a motorbike — for the 21.9 million two-wheelers that are not race bikes.
- Explore Thailand — the section this guide sits in.
A race weekend is a visit. Isan is a place to live.
Buriram is one of the cheapest provincial capitals in Thailand, and the circuit has pulled real infrastructure in behind it.
Sources & References
- FIA — the governing body's own list of FIA licensed circuits, updated 31 March 2026. Its two Thai entries are Buriram (Grade 1, 4.554 km, pole left, reference width 13 m, licence expiry 07.07.2026) and Bangsaen (Grade 3, 3.74 km, pole left, width 8.2 m, expiry 27.06.2026)
- FIA circuit safety page, confirming the 31 March 2026 licensed-circuits list as the current published edition
- MotoGP (Dorna) — the championship's own circuit page for the Grand Prix of Thailand: Chang International Circuit, Buriram, approximately 410 km north-east of Bangkok, built 2014, designed by Hermann Tilke, MotoGP debut 2018, 4.554 km, 12 metres wide, 12 turns (5 left and 7 right), 1,000-metre longest straight, capacity 100,000
- MotoGP — the championship's own announcement that the 2027 FIM MotoGP World Championship begins at the Grand Prix of Thailand in Buriram from 5 to 7 March 2027, and that the 2026 season opener drew a record crowd of 228,228
- MotoGP — the championship's own 2026 calendar, with Thailand listed as round one, 27 February to 1 March 2026
- MotoGP official ticketing — the Thailand event page, which at the time of reading stated that tickets for the event are not yet available and gave no on-sale date
- WorldSBK — the championship's own 2026 calendar. Its twelve rounds are Phillip Island, Algarve, Assen, Balaton, Most, Aragon, Misano, Donington, Magny-Cours, Cremona, Estoril and Jerez. There is no Thailand round
- Chang International Circuit — the circuit operator's own site (Buriram United International Circuit), giving the Buriram office address at 30/2 Moo 4, Isan Sub-district, Mueang Buriram, Buriram 31000, and describing the venue as built to FIA standard
- Kaeng Krachan Circuit — the circuit's own track page: located in Kaeng Krachan District, Phetchaburi Province, on over 150 rai, with three layouts of 2.912 km, 2.400 km and 1.004 km and over 18 metres of elevation change
- Thailand Super Series — the championship's own driver standings pages for 2026, showing its GT3, GTC, GTM, GT4, Touring, Pickup and Eco classes, plus Eighty-Six Challenge Thailand and Porsche Sprint Trophy Thailand
- Thailand Super Series — the championship's own race information page, run by Racing Spirit Co., Ltd., stating that entry fees are refunded for any class with fewer than seven cars registered
- Royal Automobile Association of Thailand (RAAT), Thailand's FIA-recognised national sporting authority — its own racing licence page, listing the documents required of foreign applicants (certified passport copy, No Objection Certificate, medical certificate, ECG certificate for applicants aged 45 and over, two photographs, parental consent if underage) and an approximate seven-day turnaround with complete documentation
- FIA — its own member-club record for the Royal Automobile Association of Thailand, at 151 Ratchadapisek Road, Jatujak, Bangkok 10900
- Ministry of Tourism and Sports — the ministry's own account of the minister's visit to the Monaco Grand Prix and his discussion with the Formula One Group about the possibility of Thailand hosting in future. The ministry's own phrasing is conditional and names no venue, date or agreement
Primary and official sources are cited above. Government rules, fees and procedures in Thailand change over time and vary by office; always confirm current requirements with the relevant authority before relying on them. BAANLYY never takes paid placement in editorial content.
