Formula 1 to cancel 2026 Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix amid Middle East conflict

[WardenOfTheNorth]

Given what the Trump administration is saying about this lasting "weeks" and with no sign of Iran backing down, I think it is safe to say that the early season Middle East races won't happen and, depending on how the conflict evolves, Qatar and Abu Dhabi could even end up under threat.

I still have hope. The whole Middle East is a much too big player economically to keep it shut down. And Saudi is not shut down at all by the way.
My bet would be that they make it safe within short time.

With the closing of mid-eastern airports how is the F2 freight being shipped?

Saudi is not shut down. Neither are flight routes for cargo through India or Africa for example. I think it is rather a question of cost if they now ship to Saudi and in cancellation to Europe or bring everything home now.

By the way: I would be even more gutted for F2 being cancelled. They have the opener now and with the cancellations they would go to Monaco basically unprepared for interesting rookies like Herta. I would have loved to see him well prepared on the streets of Monaco with his huge street circuit experience from Indy.

Saudi is not shut down, but air routes are closed in many neighbouring countries, including Qatar and Bahrain.

That is not insurmountable.

However some governments, including the UK Foreign Office, have placed the Jeddah region in the advise against "All Travel" category.

No insurance company is going to cover an F1 race in a region that has a Do Not Travel status.

And the logistics of F1 are such that they can't wait weeks to find out whether the military situation stabilises.

[FittingMechanics]

And if they try to hold a race, you could easily end up in a situation where flights get grounded for a prolonged period and it is stuck.

I think unless there is an end to the war in a week, the races will be cancelled.

[AR3-GP]

Those races are not happening. Time to move on and make sure there are replacement venues.

[Mr5in1]

I had travel plans / flights / tickets for the Bahrain race, I also have family there so I am keeping a close eye on the news.

Genuinely gutted if it doesn't go ahead but I think F1 / FIA will make a decision after the Australian GP, it wont be a postponement of these races as the same issues could circle back to them if the conflict continues.

I am reading some reports of replacement races so there is still a full allocation of races (although honestly there is too many in a season already IMHO).

I genuinely can't see either of those two races happening and as I have pre-booked the time off for the Bahrain race I have reserved (with free cancellation) hotels in Portimao and Imola just incase.

The priority for the FIA / F1 should be the safety of others, amid any conflict the only solution if there is no truce by the weekend is to cancel, as a global sport with industry sporting leaders I suspect there is still plenty of time to host 2 extra EU races

[ScottB]

Feels like the decision has to be made by the F2 deadline, seems unlikely they'd send F2 somewhere and F1 somewhere else, so realistically, Bahrain ain't happening and nothing is replacing it, as they'd need to know, well, more or less now?

[basti313]

Saudi is not shut down, but air routes are closed in many neighbouring countries, including Qatar and Bahrain.

That is not insurmountable.

I do not see huge issue with that. If you look at Flightradar for example you see that air routes are forming and full, but nothing more than for example along the US east cost.

However some governments, including the UK Foreign Office, have placed the Jeddah region in the advise against "All Travel" category.

No insurance company is going to cover an F1 race in a region that has a Do Not Travel status.

That is true. But this is my point: This affects much larger things than "just" F1. We have finance sector down to Covid like travel and we have petrochemical industry with no specialist workers from EU/US.
I think there is huge push to have this no travel status waived. This is maybe a reason for this nightmare not taking long.

Feels like the decision has to be made by the F2 deadline, seems unlikely they'd send F2 somewhere and F1 somewhere else, so realistically, Bahrain ain't happening and nothing is replacing it, as they'd need to know, well, more or less now?

I still do not see an issue on cancelling the cargo and leaving it for 2 weeks in Oz and flying it out later. This is anyways mostly full plane charters. Costs money, but might be the only good solution.
But yeah...realistically Bahrain will not happen.

[Shrieker]

Come to turki

[Badger]

I would prefer Istanbul Park over Imola tbh. It's a cool track.

[WardenOfTheNorth]

Saudi is not shut down, but air routes are closed in many neighbouring countries, including Qatar and Bahrain.

That is not insurmountable.

I do not see huge issue with that. If you look at Flightradar for example you see that air routes are forming and full, but nothing more than for example along the US east cost.

However some governments, including the UK Foreign Office, have placed the Jeddah region in the advise against "All Travel" category.

No insurance company is going to cover an F1 race in a region that has a Do Not Travel status.

That is true. But this is my point: This affects much larger things than "just" F1. We have finance sector down to Covid like travel and we have petrochemical industry with no specialist workers from EU/US.
I think there is huge push to have this no travel status waived. This is maybe a reason for this nightmare not taking long.

Feels like the decision has to be made by the F2 deadline, seems unlikely they'd send F2 somewhere and F1 somewhere else, so realistically, Bahrain ain't happening and nothing is replacing it, as they'd need to know, well, more or less now?

I still do not see an issue on cancelling the cargo and leaving it for 2 weeks in Oz and flying it out later. This is anyways mostly full plane charters. Costs money, but might be the only good solution.
But yeah...realistically Bahrain will not happen.

You seriously think they're going to waive a no travel status for a war zone???

[WardenOfTheNorth]

I would prefer Istanbul Park over Imola tbh. It's a cool track.

Ditto. Would be nice to see how modern F1 cars go there.

[WardenOfTheNorth]

It's not just the F1 teams don't forget. Bahrain and Saudi use a lot of support personnel from the UK and elsewhere.

I know from a conversation I had with a colleague who normally flies out to the Middles Eastern races to work at them, that he's already said he won't risk it even if they go ahead.

[FittingMechanics]

Baku could also be under threat. Less so than Bahrain/Saudi but there were some drone incursions into Azerbaijan as well.

Iran may has incentive to cause disruption to the air corridor that formed above Azerbaijan.

[ScottB]

Haven't the Turks already shot down an Iranian missile that strayed near their territory?

Granted a full scale attack on Turkey would be a NATO Article 5 moment, but still, not unlikely enough to make it a fully safe backup, much as it's a fun track.

[basti313]

Saudi is not shut down, but air routes are closed in many neighbouring countries, including Qatar and Bahrain.

That is not insurmountable.

I do not see huge issue with that. If you look at Flightradar for example you see that air routes are forming and full, but nothing more than for example along the US east cost.

However some governments, including the UK Foreign Office, have placed the Jeddah region in the advise against "All Travel" category.

No insurance company is going to cover an F1 race in a region that has a Do Not Travel status.

That is true. But this is my point: This affects much larger things than "just" F1. We have finance sector down to Covid like travel and we have petrochemical industry with no specialist workers from EU/US.
I think there is huge push to have this no travel status waived. This is maybe a reason for this nightmare not taking long.

Feels like the decision has to be made by the F2 deadline, seems unlikely they'd send F2 somewhere and F1 somewhere else, so realistically, Bahrain ain't happening and nothing is replacing it, as they'd need to know, well, more or less now?

I still do not see an issue on cancelling the cargo and leaving it for 2 weeks in Oz and flying it out later. This is anyways mostly full plane charters. Costs money, but might be the only good solution.
But yeah...realistically Bahrain will not happen.

You seriously think they're going to waive a no travel status for a war zone???

No. Selective interpretation day again?
I seriously think that this war might end as quick as it started.

[Peter Ian Staker]

I do not see huge issue with that. If you look at Flightradar for example you see that air routes are forming and full, but nothing more than for example along the US east cost.


That is true. But this is my point: This affects much larger things than "just" F1. We have finance sector down to Covid like travel and we have petrochemical industry with no specialist workers from EU/US.
I think there is huge push to have this no travel status waived. This is maybe a reason for this nightmare not taking long.


I still do not see an issue on cancelling the cargo and leaving it for 2 weeks in Oz and flying it out later. This is anyways mostly full plane charters. Costs money, but might be the only good solution.
But yeah...realistically Bahrain will not happen.

You seriously think they're going to waive a no travel status for a war zone???

No. Selective interpretation day again?
I seriously think that this war might end as quick as it started.

I wish I shared your optimism but every day I check for the US timeline for how long this will last it just grows exponentially. It went from 4 days to 4 weeks to 100 days.
I am starting to doubt the gulf races later in the year at this point.