Austin\u2019s Circuit of the Americas left the door ever so slightly open for Formula 1 to finish its season in Texas, in the event that war in Iran causes cancellations to races in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
F1 is considering ending the season at Italian circuit Imola if the races in Qatar on Nov. 29 and Abu Dhabi on Dec. 6 need to be cancelled, which is looking increasingly likely.<\/p>\n
F1 boss Stefano Domenicali said on Wednesday that in that scenario the season would end in Europe — even if it snows — and not in the U.S.<\/p>\n
However, in that instance, F1\u2019s teams and cars would already be in America with the Las Vegas Grand Prix will be held on November 21, a week before Qatar.<\/p>\n
Speaking in his own media call that day, COTA chief Bobby Epstein said F1 had not reached out to him about the venue standing in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t ever brought up. I heard the rumours the same way you did!\u201d Epstein joked to media on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Austin is already set to host the U.S. Grand Prix on Oct. 25, as scheduled.<\/p>\n
Hosting a second race so close to its grand prix — one of the landmark events on the F1 calendar — would be tough.<\/p>\n
Asked if COTA could accommodate a race on that timeline, he said: \u201cWe\u2019d have to see. I wouldn\u2019t want to see our track get another race and not have the massive crowds in the scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s part of what makes it so special. And I don\u2019t think logistically, you can put that together in such a short back to back with our U.S. Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
– Hamilton eyes stronger second half of F1 2026 as Ferrari chase power – Lando Norris insists title pressure is all on Kimi Antonelli- Hamilton blocked UFC\u2019s Jon Jones, labelled him a \u2018coward\u2019 after Jones shot a pig from a helicopter<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t want people to have to choose between [two races]. I\u2019m very happy with our mega weekend as it is. And that\u2019s the way it should always be. I don\u2019t want it to be less than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Epstein then appeared to suggest he would be willing to change his mind if F1 needed COTA to stand in.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I would say… If it helped F1, we\u2019d be here to do that. And we want to do whatever we can to make them a success and understand that sometimes just as we saw during COVID, circumstances dictate you do things a little differently than you otherwise think ideal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Should the final two races be cancelled, the final race of the season is understood to be earmarked for the weekend of Dec. 6.<\/p>\n
F1 only needs to re-arrange one of those two events because it has successfully rescheduled the Bahrain Grand Prix to take place in Malaysia on Oct. 4.<\/p>\n
F1 had originally been set for a 24-race calendar, but events in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have already been cancelled.<\/p>\n
As per F1\u2019s commercial agreement with its 11 teams and global broadcasters, the season schedule cannot drop below 22 races.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin\u2019s Circuit of the Americas left the door ever so slightly open for Formula 1 to finish its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[2571,49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-834318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-auto-racing","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\/834318","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=834318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}