- Formula 1 has set a mid-September deadline to decide whether Qatar and Abu Dhabi can host the final two rounds of the 2026 season
- F1 president Stefano Domenicali confirmed the championship will finish in Europe if the Middle East conflict rules out both races, with Imola under consideration as a venue
- The sport looked at running a second race in Las Vegas instead but turned it down, with Domenicali pointing to the NFL calendar and mild European temperatures late in the year
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F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali walks in the paddock
Photo by: Kym Illman / Getty Images |
Formula 1 has given itself until the middle of September to work out whether Qatar and Abu Dhabi can still host the closing two rounds of the 2026 season, with president and CEO Stefano Domenicali confirming the championship will finish in Europe if the conflict in the Middle East rules out either event.
Speaking to reporters this week, Domenicali said F1 is watching how other motorsport series are handling the same problem, and pointed to the World Endurance Championship’s own call to stay away from the region at the end of the year.
Bahrain’s Move to Malaysia Raises Fresh Doubts
F1’s bosses were already forced to scrap April’s races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia this year, and confirmed over the weekend that the Bahrain Grand Prix will instead run at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit in October. That switch has fed new doubt over whether the final two rounds of the season, in Qatar on November 27-29 and Abu Dhabi on December 4-6, can go ahead in their planned homes.
Domenicali said F1 is comparing notes with other championships as it plans for every outcome. “With regard to the end of the season, we are in touch with all the other championships,” he said. “And I know that, for example, WEC (World Endurance Championship) has announced that they will not go at the end of the year in the Middle East and they will stay in Europe.”
No Call Before Mid-September
Domenicali is holding off on a final decision for as long as he can. “The way that we are structured is that we will take the maximum time for us to see how the situation will develop, and we will take the decision at the right time,” he said. “That moment would be not before the middle of September.”
For now, both races remain on the books. “For us, today, the races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi are confirmed,” Domenicali said. “But, of course, if the situation will not be clearer, the way that we believe it should be, before the middle of September, we will take the decision.”
He was direct about what happens if either race falls through. “I just want to confirm to you that if this (races in the Middle East) will not be possible, the end of the season will be in Europe, because we cannot go in other places,” he said. “There are some possibilities on the table, but I don’t think it’s right to make some promises or anticipate certain things, but that’s the situation of today.
“Even if I really hope that it will not be the case, if the situation will not allow for us to be there, we’re going to finish the championship in Europe.”
Imola Waits in the Wings, a Second Las Vegas Race Is Ruled Out
Italy’s Imola circuit has been tipped as the front-runner among any European replacement venues, though Domenicali stopped short of confirming it. “An option, but is not defined,” he said of the historic track. He explained that “Brexit-connected documentation” limits F1’s options largely to the continent, adding that more than one European venue is under consideration.
Behind the scenes, F1 also looked at running a second race in Las Vegas rather than sending the finale to Europe, an idea it later dropped. “There was a possibility of having two races in Las Vegas, but we don’t want to ruin a jewel that is growing by undervaluing what we are doing there,” Domenicali said.
He added that racing in Europe late in the year would not necessarily mean colder conditions than the alternative. “The fascinating side is that if I look at the statistics of the temperature in Europe in that time, it is less cool than Las Vegas’ average temperature while we are racing,” he said. “It’s definitely something that no one knows where the temperature will go and what the weather will be like. I think that actually we see in this situation of how the pollution of the climate change is happening. There’s no certainty or anything about that.”
Timing against the NFL calendar also played a part in ruling out a second Las Vegas date. “We don’t have to forget that in that period of the year, we are fighting in the US against NFL,” Domenicali said. “That is a major sport that is, I don’t want to say detracting, but a lot of fans are watching that, so we need to avoid any kind of situation that would put us in front of something that of course is quite still very big in the US.”
Already Planning Beyond 2026
Domenicali has also been looking further ahead, to the calendar for 2027. “So far, the calendar that will be presented, let’s say in autumn, it would be as a sort of normal plan,” he said. “But of course, in the case that the situation in the Middle East would be not solved, we have options. But the trigger for that is at the end of the year, so we have still a lot of time to adjust. We have different plans with different options ready in place that will accommodate the fact that we will keep, in any case, the target of 24 Grands Prix for next year.”
Portugal and Turkiye are both confirmed to return to the calendar in 2027, part of what Domenicali described as continued demand from “a lot of requests to host Grands Prix all around the world” as the sport keeps growing.
Title Fight Resumes With 12 Rounds Left
Any reshuffle of the closing rounds would land in the middle of a tight title fight. Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli currently leads Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton by 50 points with 12 scheduled rounds remaining, after Lando Norris ended his own long wait for a 2026 win at the Hungarian Grand Prix before the summer break. The 2026 calendar already sits at 23 races rather than the original 24 following the loss of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and stops still to come include the Italian Grand Prix on September 4-6, Spain’s first Madrid round on September 11-13, Azerbaijan on September 24-26, the Malaysia-hosted Bahrain round on October 2-4, Singapore on October 9-11, the United States on October 23-25, Mexico on October 30 to November 1, Brazil on November 6-8, and Las Vegas on November 20-22, before the season is scheduled to close out in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
Formula 1 returns from its break with a Sprint weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix on August 21-23, by which point the plan for the season’s final rounds could look very different already.
- Jack Renn
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