{"id":831539,"date":"2026-07-29T15:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T15:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/831539\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T15:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T15:37:15","slug":"f1-season-to-end-in-europe-if-qatar-abu-dhabi-unable-to-host-due-to-war-motorsports-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/831539\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 season to end in Europe if Qatar, Abu Dhabi unable to host due to war | Motorsports News"},"content":{"rendered":"

F1 sets a mid-September deadline to decide whether final rounds in Middle East can be held due to US-Israel war on Iran.<\/p>\n

Published On 29 Jul 202629 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

Formula One will \u2060end the season in Europe \u2060if races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi cannot be held and has set a mid-September deadline, the Liberty Media-owned sport\u2019s Chief Executive Stefano Domenicali has said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will take the maximum time for us to see how the situation will develop and we will take the decision at the right time,\u201d Domenicali told reporters on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Races scheduled for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain \u2060in April were called off due to the US-Israel war on Iran, with Malaysia\u2019s Sepang circuit now due to host the latter on October 4, with the Gulf kingdom paying most of the costs.<\/p>\n

The FIA-sanctioned World Endurance Championship (WEC) has already moved its \u2060last two rounds in Qatar and Bahrain to Barcelona\u2019s Circuit de Catalunya and Italy\u2019s Monza in October and November.<\/p>\n

Domenicali said, \u201cThe deadline for the decision of any possible change of the actual calendar is the middle of September.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us \u200ctoday, the races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi are confirmed. By the way, they are already sold out,\u201d he added. \u201cIf this will not be possible, the end of the season will be in Europe because we cannot go in other places.\u201d<\/p>\n

Qatar is due to host F1 on November 29 and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates on December 6.<\/p>\n

\"YasYas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, is the venue for the final round of the 2026 Formula One season [File: Amr Alfiky\/Reuters]Imola confirmed on list of candidates<\/p>\n

Domenicali confirmed Italy\u2019s Imola circuit, his birthplace and home to Ferrari as well as Mercedes\u2019s Formula One leader Kimi Antonelli, was on the list of possible replacements.<\/p>\n

Informed sources have touted Imola, dropped from the calendar \u2060this year, as a leading candidate despite the weather at that time of year.<\/p>\n

Domenicali said \u2060the temperatures in the US city of Las Vegas during the Saturday night race in November were colder than in Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a possibility of having two races in Las Vegas [to end the season] but we don\u2019t want to ruin a jewel that is growing,\u201d he said, adding that there would also be \u2060added competition with the regular NFL season.<\/p>\n

The 2027 calendar has yet to be published, but Bahrain was expected, before the conflict erupted, to take back its slot as season-opener \u2060\u2060from Australia in March.<\/p>\n

The Italian said Formula One planned to publish a schedule \u2060later in the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, in case the situation in the Middle East would not be solved, we have options, different plans,\u201d Domenicali said. \u201cBut the trigger for that, of course, is at the end of the year. So we still have a lot of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will keep, in any \u200ccase, the target of 24 grands prix also for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Portugal and Turkiye will return as new rounds on the calendar next year, Domenicali said. Longer term, there were positive negotiations with possible hosts in Africa and interest from \u200cAsia \u200cand South America.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have more requests in China and Japan, but for the moment we want to stay with one race in China because we need to consolidate the market before thinking to have another option there,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"F1 sets a mid-September deadline to decide whether final rounds in Middle East can be held due to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,12241,806,805,3152,803,804,44,16260,588,85,29994],"class_list":["post-831539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-middle-east","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-news","tag-qatar","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-united-arab-emirates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831539","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=831539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}