{"id":635396,"date":"2026-10-03T17:58:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T17:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/635396\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T17:58:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T17:58:15","slug":"qatar-and-abu-dhabi-grands-prix-to-go-ahead-despite-middle-east-conflict-says-f1-chief-formula-one-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/635396\/","title":{"rendered":"Qatar and Abu Dhabi grands prix to go ahead despite Middle East conflict, says F1 chief | Formula One 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The final races of the Formula One<\/a> season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi will go ahead as planned despite the conflict in the Middle East, the sport\u2019s chief executive, Stefano Domenicali, said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on the information we have, everything is confirmed for [us to stay in] Qatar and Abu Dhabi,\u201d Domenicali told the French broadcaster Canal+ on the sidelines of the Bahrain Grand Prix, which was relocated to the Sepang circuit in Malaysia.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Sky Sport Italia, the head of motorsport\u2019s blue riband series \u201cconfirmed the schedule for the final two grands prix\u201d of the year in Qatar on 29 November and Abu Dhabi on 6 December.<\/p>\n

The Bahrain and Saudi Arabia grands prix were scrapped earlier this season due to the start of the US-led war with Iran.<\/a><\/p>\n

Domenicali insisted \u201cthat everything was in order\u201d and that \u201cteams and drivers were being kept informed of the situation\u201d. He added that 99% of tickets had been sold in Abu Dhabi and that the season-ending race was generating \u201cgreat excitement\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, not all drivers want to compete in the Gulf. Max Verstappen, who will start from pole position in Malaysia on Sunday<\/a>, said during the week he would prefer if the season did not finish in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is confirmed for [us to stay in] Qatar and Abu Dhabi,\u2019 Stefano Domenicali told Canal+. Photograph: Jakub Porzycki\/NurPhoto\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally I am happy to go to Qatar and Abu Dhabi, but you know, when there is a war nearby, and if some of the countries are in conflict with each other, then I think we shouldn\u2019t go,\u201d he told ViaPlay. \u201cThen, it doesn\u2019t matter if you have a contract or not, I think. But it\u2019s not up to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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One of the options discussed was moving the Emirati race to Imola in Italy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The final races of the Formula One season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi will go ahead as planned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-635396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}