{"id":510839,"date":"2026-03-01T01:49:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T01:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/510839\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T01:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T01:49:15","slug":"iran-strikes-vs-israel-and-america-news-2026-formula-1-escaping-middle-east-as-oscar-piastri-safe-ahead-of-australian-grand-prix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/510839\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran strikes vs Israel and America news 2026, Formula 1 escaping Middle East as Oscar Piastri safe ahead of Australian grand prix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australian driver <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/person\/oscar-piastri-266l\" class=\"sc-bczRLG cEmsbU\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oscar Piastri<\/a> is believed to be safe but a number of other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/motorsport\/formula-1\" class=\"sc-bczRLG cEmsbU\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a> staffers are scrambling to get out of the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>Organisers are closely monitoring the situation ahead of the F1 season beginning in Melbourne with next weekend&#8217;s grand prix.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/world-news\/middle-east\/us-israel-launch-attack-on-iran-live-updates-us-begins-major-combat-operations-israel-launches-attack-on-irans-capital-20260228-p5o6bs.html\" class=\"sc-bczRLG cEmsbU\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Israel and America launched strikes on Iran on Saturday<\/a> and then Iran launched retaliatory strikes. Surrounding nations are reportedly being impacted, including Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.<\/p>\n<p>LIVE UPDATES: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/las-vegas-2026-live-scores-hull-kr-leeds-knights-cowboys-bulldogs-dragons-results-updates-latest-news-20260301-p5o6e1.html\" class=\"sc-bczRLG cEmsbU\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Follow all the action from NRL&#8217;s season opener in Las Vegas<\/a><\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/news-2026-the-mole-canterbury-bulldogs-las-vegas-family-dad-death-trip-laundy-family-exclusive-20260228-p5o6d9.html\" class=\"sc-bczRLG cEmsbU\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#8216;Amazing&#8217; Bulldogs gesture for family after tragedy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/horse-racing\/news-2026-makybe-diva-dies-lee-freedman-melbourne-cup-20260228-p5o6ay.html\" class=\"sc-bczRLG cEmsbU\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#8216;Brilliant to the end&#8217;: Tributes flow for Makybe Diva, dead at 26<\/a><\/p>\n<p>On Sunday morning it emerged Dubai airport had been struck.<\/p>\n<p>Bahrain has been hosting most of the F1 pre-season testing in recent weeks, with the teams and drivers converging on the gulf nation to test the cars.<\/p>\n<p>Wide World of Sports understands Piastri has already left the Middle East and is in Melbourne preparing for his home grand prix next week.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Oscar Piastri finished in fifth for the final practice of 2025. \" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/6f5be3722ce7bf9b0eef273cb6e05f586adc0604.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">Oscar Piastri of Mercedes. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n<p>But 9News Melbourne reporter Selina Zhang says the F1 season opener remains under a cloud.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A number of the F1 team are stuck in the Middle East trying to get here to Melbourne,&#8221; she told Today on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We understand some of the team are already here in Australia, but whether it means the grand prix is delayed, we&#8217;re yet to find out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The F1 season begins in Australia next weekend, then goes to China and Japan before heading to the Middle East for races in Bahrain (April 12) and Saudi Arabia (April 19).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our next three races are in Australia, China and Japan and not in the Middle East &#8211; those races are not for a number of weeks,&#8221; an F1 spokesperson said Saturday, per The Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As always, we closely monitor any situation like this and work closely with relevant authorities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Tyre manufacturer Pirelli on Saturday announced the cancellation of its scheduled F1 tyre testing in Bahrain.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; with Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian driver Oscar Piastri is believed to be safe but a number of other Formula 1 staffers are&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-510839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}