F1 cancels Bahrain and Saudi Grands Prix as Iranian missile attacks continue

Formula 1 has cancelled this year’s Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix, which were due to be held in April, as both countries continue to come under attack from Iranian missiles and drones.

Days after a woman was killed in Bahrain’s capital Manama after a residential building was hit, F1 made the announcement that the April 12 race at the Kingdom’s Sakhir circuit would not take place, and neither would Saudi Arabia’s round in Jeddah, scheduled for the following week.

The races will not be replaced, reducing the 2026 calendar to 22 grands prix, and leaving more than a month between the Japanese Grand Prix at the end of March, to the Miami round on May 3.

MotoGP is looking to reschedule its Qatar Grand Prix, which was also due to take place on April 12, but no official announcement has yet been made.

“While this was a difficult decision to take, it is unfortunately the right one at this stage considering the current situation in the Middle East,” said F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali. “I want to take this opportunity to thank the FIA as well as our incredible promoters for their support and total understanding as they were looking forward to hosting us with their usual energy and passion. We cannot wait to be back with them as soon as the circumstances allow us to do so.”

This spring’s Middle East races have looked in doubt from the moment the US and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. It caused instant unrest across the region and plunged motor sport into its most acute geopolitical crisis since a missile attack in Jeddah during the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend.

The World Endurance Championship quickly postponed its season-opening round in neighbouring Qatar, which was scheduled for March 28 and the situation has deteriorated since then, as drones and missiles have continued to fall on the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, while oil tankers have come under attack in the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that’s critical for many of the region’s oil exports.

On March 10, Bahrain’s government said that its air defences had destroyed 105 missiles and 176 drones launched by Iran, but not all attacks have been repelled. Strikes have been reported at a US navy base and at an oil storage depot, which caused a huge fire earlier in the week. On Tuesday, a 29-year-old woman was killed and eight others injured when a drone hit a residential meeting in Manama.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have also intercepted more Iranian attacks in the past week, which follows damage to oil depots in both countries.

Formula 1 has previously cancelled a Bahrain Grand Prix, in 2011 as a result of pro-democracy protests, and did so three weeks in advance of the event. It was thought that Formula 1 may have been able to delay its decision until immediately after the Japanese Grand Prix on March 29, when equipment would need to be shipped to the Middle East, but has now made an earlier call, with no end in sight to the conflict.

US president Donald Trump had warned of a war that would last four to five weeks but could “go far longer than that”, and tensions have only risen since then.

Iran conflict: the races cancelled so far

A Pirelli tyre test that had been scheduled to start at at Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit on February 28 was the first racing fixture to be cancelled, as the first Iranian missiles were reported in the country.

Pirelli confirmed all personnel in Manama were safe and being assisted in returning to Europe, but the scrapping of the test was the first tangible sign that several motor sport series had been affected.

The postponement of WEC’s season-opening Qatar 1812km race was then the first major event to be disrupted.

Now Formula 1 has decided to avoid the region entirely in April. It is due to race this September in Azerbaijan, which has also been targeted by Iranian missiles, and then return to the Middle East for a season-ending double-header in Qatar and then Abu Dhabi where explosions were reported at the Yas Marina circuit.

The logistical disruption has already reached far beyond the Middle East.

Australian Grand Prix travel affected

Formula 1’s travelling operation, comprising roughly 2,000 team members and organisational staff, was thrown into disarray following the closure of major aviation hubs in the Gulf.

Many F1 workers were forced to hastily revise travel arrangements as they attempted to reach Albert Park for the championship’s opening race.

With Doha and Dubai airports shut following Iranian bombing of facilities across Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE, F1 travellers were redirected onto alternative services through Hong Kong and Singapore, while others opted for Qantas flights into Perth and an internal connection of approximately three and a half hours to Melbourne.

The airspace problem

Even if hostilities were to cease imminently, the practical consequences for F1 logistics would linger.

Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the UAE were among the nations that announced at least partial closures of their skies as bombing raids vegan, forcing widespread flight suspensions, cancellations and diversions and leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded globally.

Several airlines, including British Airways, have suspended flights to Middle East destinations for now, while local operators, including Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad have a limited schedule.

For F1, which moves a small city’s worth of equipment from race to race, the freight dimension is critical.

Teams routinely ship equipment through Dubai, whose airport handles some of the heaviest freight volumes in the world.

F1’s dilemma: money, safety and precedent

The commercial stakes, as usual in situations like this, are enormous.

The Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix were integral parts of a 24-race calendar that F1 has invested heavily in building.

But the championship has been here before, and the lesson of Jeddah 2022, where racing continued despite drivers being able to see the smoke from a Houthi missile strike on a nearby oil facility, is that F1’s threshold for pulling the plug is higher than some in the paddock would like.