Formula 1’s 2026 season may culminate on European asphalt rather than under the floodlights of the Persian Gulf, after chief executive Stefano Domenicali conceded that the final two races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi could be abandoned if regional security does not improve. The sport has set a mid-September deadline to assess whether the ongoing Iran war will allow the races to proceed on 29 November and 6 December as scheduled. “We will take the maximum time to see how the situation develops; we won’t decide before the middle of September,” Domenicali told reporters. “If the races are not possible, the end of the season will be in Europe because we can’t go to other places.”

The conflict has already redrawn the early-season calendar: April rounds in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were cancelled, and the Bahrain Grand Prix has been transplanted to Malaysia’s Sepang circuit for 4 October, with Bahrain underwriting most of the costs. The FIA’s World Endurance Championship has also pre-emptively shifted its concluding rounds from Qatar and Bahrain to Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya and Italy’s Monza. The Qatar and Abu Dhabi events remain officially on the calendar and are sold out, Domenicali noted, but the sport has prepared contingency plans centred on European venues.

Imola, the circuit near Bologna dropped from this year’s F1 schedule, has emerged as the leading candidate. Domenicali confirmed the Italian track is “among the options we are evaluating,” and dismissed concerns about cold weather, pointing out that November night-race temperatures in Las Vegas are frequently lower than those in Europe. “The weather should allow us to race in Europe even in the beginning of December,” he said. Other alternatives include Portugal’s Portimão and Turkey’s Istanbul Park, though both are undergoing upgrades ahead of their scheduled return to the calendar in 2027.

The F1 chief executive poured cold water on speculation that Las Vegas could host a double-header to end the season, saying he does not want to “ruin a jewel that is growing” and citing competition with the regular NFL season. The next concrete step for the championship arrives with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on 23 August, before the calendar once again navigates the volatility of geopolitics.