{"id":508799,"date":"2026-03-02T04:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/508799\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T04:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:50:10","slug":"formula-ones-australian-grand-prix-hit-by-travel-chaos-amid-middle-east-crisis-formula-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/508799\/","title":{"rendered":"Formula One\u2019s Australian Grand Prix hit by travel chaos amid Middle East crisis | Formula One"},"content":{"rendered":"

As many as one thousand members of the Formula One<\/a> circus have been forced into last-minute travel changes to get to Melbourne\u2019s opening round in the wake of the escalating crisis in the Middle East, and some are set to miss the start of the season entirely.<\/p>\n

However, a larger logistical headache has been narrowly avoided, after the cars and supporting equipment were already shipped from last month\u2019s testing in Bahrain \u2013 one of the countries drawn into the conflict \u2013 prior to this week\u2019s widespread aviation disruptions.<\/p>\n

Travis Auld, chief executive of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, told Channel Nine on Monday the vehicles were already sitting on the main straight at Albert Park in containers, ready to be put into the garages ahead of the Formula One race weekend, which begins with practice on Friday.<\/p>\n

He added, however, that many staff have had to make new travel arrangements to avoid international airport hubs in places such as Qatar and the UAE which have been hit by Iranian missiles.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re talking about teams, drivers, Formula One personnel, I\u2019m guessing there\u2019d be close to a thousand people that would have already booked their flights and would be landing somewhere between today, tomorrow, Wednesday \u2013 they had to all be changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut a lot of people around the world are doing the same thing and so you\u2019re competing obviously with that increase in demand, but they\u2019ve been able to sort it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a globetrotting sport with close ties to locations and capital in the Middle East, Formula One has been heavily affected by the the events of recent days.<\/p>\n

Round four remains scheduled in Bahrain in early April and round five in Saudi Arabia a week later, but Formula One officials said they were monitoring the situation.<\/p>\n

Tyre manufacturer Pirelli cancelled wet weather testing in Bahrain due to the conflict but staff were still stranded in Manama, one of the sites targeting by a drone attack<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some members of the McLaren and Mercedes teams were reportedly also still in Bahrain, including Mercedes new third driver Frederik Vesti who posted two days ago from the track.<\/p>\n

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Auld said fans can expect to see all of Formula One\u2019s familiar faces in Melbourne, even if he suggested not everyone will make it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe drivers will be here, the engineers will be here, the team principals will be here, they\u2019re the ones that have been prioritised [for travel] and so you won\u2019t see any sort of surprise drivers under a helmet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the other ones [staff] are coming out now, probably you could continue the race without them, but luckily we\u2019ve been able to get everyone that needs to be here, here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As many as one thousand members of the Formula One circus have been forced into last-minute travel changes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-508799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}