Posted on 03/13/2026 11:08:36 AM PDT by God luvs America
Formula 1 is set to cancel April's races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia due to the ongoing Iran war, sources confirmed to ESPN.
F1 was due to race in Bahrain on April 12 and in Saudi Arabia on April 19.
Both countries have been struck during Iran's response after the United States and Israel launched a wave of attacks on Iran.
Despite not knowing whether the conflict would be ongoing by the time their event dates roll around, a decision needed to be made imminently due to the logistics of when teams had to start sending freight to the Middle East for both events.
It is highly unlikely the races in the Middle East will be replaced, given the schedule at the back end of the year is tightly packed.
Without knowing when the conflict will end or whether there will be escalations in the conflict down the line, F1 does not want to be in a position where a championship is decided or influenced by a race being canceled at the end of the calendar.
That would mean the 2026 schedule being reduced from 24 to 22 races and a five-week void between the third round of the new season in Japan on March 29 and the Miami Grand Prix on May 3.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.com ...
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F1 ping...
9/11 screwed up a lot of events in the USA, so I’m not feeling too sorry for the locals.
SCHEDULE THEM HERE-—FANS WILL SHOW UP.
Exactly.
Not even close to lonely.
You have High Limit and USAC on Flo Racing, and WoO on Dirtvision, if they aren't close enough for you to attend in person.
Kyle Larson and Corey Day put on a good show last night at Las Vegas. Margin of victory was .096 seconds.
You might get some gritters in your beer, but that never hurt anyone.
The FIA could move the shutdown from August to April and shut down the shops then, while adding Portimao (set for 2027, could move the contract) the GP-Strecke in August. During the 2020 cancellation of April races, they held races at Imola, GP-Strecke, Portimao, and Mugello.
The FIM’s MotoGP (also owned by Liberty Media) has Reserve Venues on their calendar. MotoGP has a similar issue with Qatar on April 12. Could be moved to a reserve venue in August or be replaced by a ‘double-up’ (Marco Simoncelli or Red Bull Ring) or have a race on Angel Nieto on April 19 the week before the scheduled April 26 race.
(Yes, MotoGP tracks are named for motorcycling legends.)
Imola will host the FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours for sportscars that hosts most F1 rejects.
INDYCAR should be interesting that their next round in two weeks is Leeds, AL at Barber.
And Long Beach will be very late for European fans — the April 19 race is scheduled for a 23.45 CET start (14.30 local time). Fox will do a NASCAR/INDYCAR television double on the broadcast network that weekend — Cup Advent Health 400 from Kansas at 14.00 EDT and INDYCAR Acura GP of Long Beach at 17.45 EDT. The IndyCar race could start at 3 PM local time — which Fox wants to penetrate the primetime hours with racing. Two ovals are set for primetime races in INDYCAR this season.
With the average of 3:15 for a Cup race in Kansas, INDYCAR will be on immediately after the chequered flag in Kansas.
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