F1 Confirms Qatar and Abu Dhabi Finale Despite Middle East Tensions, Drops Imola Backup Plan

Formula 1 will end its 2026 season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi as scheduled, telling Italy’s Imola circuit on Tuesday that it is no longer needed as a backup for the finale. The decision, reported by Reuters and the Associated Press, ends months of uncertainty caused by the war with Iran, which already forced the Bahrain Grand Prix to move to Malaysia and the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix to be cancelled. Both championships are already decided, but F1 says it will still cancel the two races if the situation in the Gulf deteriorates.

What did Formula 1 actually decide?

To finish where it always planned to finish. Qatar runs on November 29 and Abu Dhabi on December 6, and the calendar will run to 23 rounds, Reuters reports. The teams were informed of the decision on Tuesday, with Formula 1 saying all 11 were supportive. Imola had been pencilled in for December 6 in case the Iran war made it unsafe to complete the calendar, and local organisers were told on Tuesday that the circuit is no longer required.

The timing mattered as much as the call. Imola had reached a point in its preparations where it would have needed to invest significant further amounts to be race-ready, RACER reports, and Formula One Management set a deadline of November 10 to stand the Italian contingency down and commit freight logistics to the Middle East. The trigger for the decision was not a diplomatic breakthrough. It was a motorbike race: MotoGP, like F1 owned by Liberty Media, held its Qatar round at Lusail last weekend as scheduled, despite criticism from riders and the withdrawal of the Yamaha team.

What did the FIA president say?

Mohammed Ben Sulayem, president of F1’s governing body, posted the confirmation on Instagram. “We are ready for Qatar and Abu Dhabi,” he wrote. “We are fully prepared and committed to delivering two outstanding Grand Prix weekends and a spectacular conclusion to the FIA Formula One world championship. We look forward to welcoming drivers, teams and fans to two iconic circuits for an unforgettable finish to the season.”

He gave no details of the preparations or security arrangements, the Associated Press notes, adding only that the FIA is working closely with its partners to ensure everything is in place for drivers, teams and fans. Ben Sulayem is from the United Arab Emirates, which includes Abu Dhabi, and his post is the most public statement of confidence F1 has made about the finale. It is a statement of intent, not a guarantee: Reuters reports F1 could still cancel the races if the situation flares up, with safety a priority.

Why does losing Imola hurt Antonelli?

Because it would have been a homecoming, and a historic one. Antonelli is the first Italian champion in 73 years, and his hometown of Bologna is just down the road from the circuit, the Associated Press reports. Imola hosted the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix until last year and dropped off the schedule for 2026, so a season-ending race there would have let the new champion celebrate in front of his own crowd.

The weather would have been part of the occasion too, and not in a good way. Racing at Imola at the end of the season would have meant unusually cold weather for a Grand Prix, potentially with rain or snow, the Associated Press reports. Antonelli clinched the title in Austin with 126 points still to play for, and the arithmetic that made him the youngest champion ever is the same story the Imola decision closes: there will be no home party to cap it.

What did the drivers say?

The most pointed doubt came from Carlos Sainz Jr. Speaking last month ahead of the United States Grand Prix, the Williams driver and Grand Prix Drivers Association director said: “They seem very convinced that it’s going to go ahead. I think on my personal side, I’m not,” adding that “we need to stay diligent, and reactive to whatever happens.” Hours later, Williams issued a statement quoting Sainz as saying he trusts the FIA and Formula 1 to put safety first and completely trusts them to make the right decision.

Sainz was not alone in his unease. Sportstar reports four-time world champion Max Verstappen is among the drivers to have aired reservations about racing in the region, and the BBC reports a number of senior figures in F1 have expressed disquiet to it about going to the Middle East, with both venues close to areas in the Strait of Hormuz where missile strikes are still taking place. An F1 spokesperson told the BBC that if the situation develops negatively in the coming weeks, the sport will not hesitate to do the right thing and the safety of everyone will always be the priority. Marc Marquez refused to give an opinion on Qatar as MotoGP’s riders split on the same question, which shows how the sport’s two Liberty Media series have handled the same dilemma differently.

Why did F1 wait so long to decide?

Because waiting cost nothing and deciding early would have cost a fortune. F1 dragged the decision out for months, far beyond chief executive Stefano Domenicali’s earlier prediction of a mid-September call, the Associated Press reports. The delay let F1 watch MotoGP race in Qatar last week, and let it monitor whether the United States midterm elections would be followed by more intense military action between the US and Iran, which has not happened. Reuters adds a detail that may have helped: US President Donald Trump said on Monday he planned to hold off on new military strikes against Iran for the time being, after appeals from countries in the region, including from Qatar’s prime minister.

The wait also had a commercial logic. The Middle East races are among the most lucrative for F1 and valuable markets for the teams and their sponsors, the Associated Press reports. Moving the finale to Imola would have meant a smaller, colder, less lucrative event, and F1 had already funded preliminary temporary grandstand assembly at Imola so the circuit could rapidly scale spectator capacity on short notice, RacingNews365 reports. Standing Imola down now, rather than in December, is the point at which the contingency stopped being cheap.

What is still at stake in the final three races?

More than the headlines suggest. The drivers’ and constructors’ championships are won, with Verstappen and Hamilton arguing F1 should not run sprints where cars cannot pass after a Singapore sprint that exposed the calendar’s own tensions, but the positions behind Antonelli are still live. Verstappen holds a 17-point advantage over George Russell in the battle for second in the drivers’ standings, while Red Bull leads McLaren by 17 points for third in the constructors’ championship, RACER reports. Haas in seventh and Audi in eighth are separated by just three points, and Williams and Aston Martin are five apart as they compete for ninth.

The Formula Two title will also be decided on track in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, Reuters reports, which is a second reason the calendar staying at 23 rounds matters beyond the senior series. And there is a quiet footnote to the decision: if the Gulf situation does deteriorate, Las Vegas on November 21 could ultimately prove to be the final race of the 2026 season, RACER reports. The finale is confirmed, in other words, until it is not. The FIA admitted human error gave some cars extra power in Singapore sprint qualifying, a reminder that this season’s governance stories have rarely ended where they started.