The knock-on effects of the military conflict in the Middle East are proving to be enormous and wide-reaching, with the USA’s joint action with Israel against the Iranian regime seeing the Iranians respond with missile and drone attacks from Iran against military and civilian infrastructure right across the region.
That includes attacks targeting Qatar, with civilian passenger and cargo flights suspended, and seaborne freight through the Straits of Hormuz severely affected too.
Many of the WEC cars and a significant proportion of the team and organisers’ equipment are already on-site in Qatar, and it’s in these circumstances that the team responsible for organising the FIA WEC is assessing its options to get the 2026 season underway, with few attractive alternatives.
At present, all sporting events in Qatar are suspended, with the first programmed track time at Lusail, the first of two Prologue test dates on 22 March, just three weeks away. A decision, though, is made more urgent because of the limited choices for onward freight; the programmed second round at Imola is just over six weeks away.
With the safety of all concerned as the top priority, a rapid decision looks likely, given that the Qatar event is at significant risk and current freight options make it almost entirely impossible for another pre-Imola event to happen. Indeed, several industry sources have declared it a race to get to Imola.
Whilst the Lusail event running as programmed looks unlikely there seems to be every possibility that it will be reprogrammed at the tail end of the season should a postponement be determined to be necessary.
Meanwhile, FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has issued his own statement about the process now underway to determine whether the WEC race in Qatar this month and the F1 Grand Prix in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in April will go ahead:
