The war puts (also) F1 in check
It seems that there is some reluctance to admit it, even in the face of the obvious: the war between Iran, the United States, and Israel, with the obvious repercussions throughout the Persian Gulf region, in addition to having led to the cancellation – or rather, the postponement to an indefinite date – of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia GPs, concretely puts at risk the regular running of other races still scheduled in the 2026 Formula 1 calendar. Thus, the initial self-nomination of Silverstone for a second GP, in case it became necessary to fill another potential gap caused by the Middle East conflict, initially sounded a bit strange. However, now it is also the CEO of F1, Stefano Domenicali, who admits this possibility.
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F1, Stefano Domenicali’s admission
During a long interview granted to the American news outlet specialized in economics and finance, CNBC, Domenicali candidly spoke about the challenges F1 is forced to face related to the current complex geopolitical situation, and not only in terms of the calendar: “We had to cancel the first two races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, but obviously now we have to wait, because we have two races at the end of the year scheduled in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. As you can imagine, we have to wait and see how the situation will evolve”.
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In any case, however, the GP paddock should not be caught unprepared and therefore provide for possible additions of other races (European?) to the calendar: “We have a deadline by which we must decide whether the situation will allow us to race in those countries or not. We hope so, as is easy to imagine also looking at the bigger picture, but, on the other hand, it is our duty as a global sport to have an alternative option ready. And of course, we have it. But, as I said, now the biggest impact on our business is more about the increase in fuel and logistics costs.” “We are a global sport and we travel all over the world and the main challenges we have to face these days are these,” concluded the great head of F1, Stefano Domenicali.
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