{"id":624036,"date":"2026-04-23T20:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/624036\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:27:08","slug":"formula-1-mulls-october-return-of-bahrain-race-canceled-by-iran-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/624036\/","title":{"rendered":"Formula 1 Mulls October Return of Bahrain Race Canceled by Iran War"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe FIA, Formula 1<\/a> parent Liberty Media and the 11 F1 teams have discussed adding the Bahrain Grand Prix back to the 2026 calendar, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf an agreement were to be reached, the canceled race could return ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix in early October, said the people, who were granted anonymity because the matter is private. That would put the revised event on Oct. 4, in between the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sept. 26 and the Singapore race on Oct. 11. At this point, no firm decision has been made to reschedule the race.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe people also said that contingency plans for F1\u2019s season-ending Qatar and Abu Dhabi races are also being discussed, though nothing has been determined yet. Rumors had previously emerged that the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah, which was also called off because of the Iran war, could rejoin the schedule after Abu Dhabi. But that scenario is considered highly unlikely due to logistics and the timing of the FIA\u2019s awards event in Shanghai on Dec. 12.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe FIA and Liberty Media both declined to comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tF1\u2019s latest deliberations offer a glimpse of just how big of a priority it is to go back to the Middle East, an extremely lucrative source of income for sports properties across the globe.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince the U.S. and Israel began military strikes on Iran in February, it\u2019s resulted in a slew of disruptions for sporting events held in the Middle East, including a MotoGP race, the \u201cFinalissima\u201d soccer match between Spain and Argentina and the Diamond League\u2019s season-opening<\/a> track and field event, all of which were set to be held in Qatar. The inaugural Fanatics<\/a> Flag Football Classic was also relocated from Saudi Arabia to Los Angeles due to safety concerns from the conflict.<\/p>\n

\n\tBahrain and Jeddah were originally scheduled for April, but both races were removed from the calendar as the conflict escalated. Neither grand prix was expected to be rescheduled or replaced, and like many of the affected teams, leagues and properties, it dealt Liberty Media a sizable financial blow.<\/p>\n

\n\tA March note from Guggenheim Partners suggested that F1 would lose roughly $200 million in annual revenue and about $80 million in EBITDA from the cancellations. In 2025, the racing series generated total revenues of $3.9 billion and an operating income of $632 million. Adding Bahrain back into the fold could salvage a sizable chunk of those losses, with the promoter fee<\/a> for the race estimated to be more than $50 million, according to the note.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut it\u2019s unclear whether a return to the region is even possible, amid a fragile ceasefire and an ongoing blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. WWE<\/a>, on the other hand, on Tuesday announced it would hold its \u201cNight of Champions\u201d in Riyadh on June 27. The event was also in Saudi Arabia last year.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe F1 season has been on hiatus since the Japanese Grand Prix on March 29. The sport will host its next full-length race on May 3 in Miami.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FIA, Formula 1 parent Liberty Media and the 11 F1 teams have discussed adding the Bahrain Grand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,35732,576,577,82,13015],"class_list":["post-624036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-fanatics","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports","tag-wwe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624036","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=624036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}