The important thing right now is to call for restraint, calm, a de-escalation, and a quick end to the war. Nobody gains from this action and there is a lot to lose.
The Israeli-led, US-backed strikes on Iran, invasion of Lebanon, and the retaliatory strikes across the wider region, has caused chaos in the Gulf. Bahrain and Qatar have both suffered missile attacks for a war they didn’t start.
The important thing right now is to call for restraint, calm, a de-escalation, and a quick end to the war. Nobody gains from this action and there is a lot to lose.
Some have called motorsport ‘war by other means’, a peaceful way to advance technology and demonstrate your prowess by doing so on the racetrack. Let us hope for a day when that is where it stays.
For the immediate term, as a blog about motorsport and race calendars, let’s look at the impact on the racing world.
Bahrain and Qatar were scheduled to host motor racing events in the next two months, along with Saudi Arabia. Add in the United Arab Emirates, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and we may see other events at risk later in the year.
One site attacked was just 7km from Bahrain International Airport, the only realistic way of reaching Bahrain International Circuit from abroad, and barely a 30-40 minute drive from the circuit. In Qatar, Lusail International Circuit is in close proximity to Doha. And we’ve all seen the missiles intercepted over Dubai in the UAE.
And with the Saudi Arabian GP also due up soon, although I’ve not seen reporting of attacks on the country, we must remember the Grand Prix itself was threatened in 2022 by Yemen’s Houthi rebels and is therefore also at a serious security risk right now. Nothing can be considered off the table.
I have had a lot of thoughts about all of this but I think it is best to save those for another time and focus on what the racing world needs to do next, while we all hope for a return to calmer times.
International air travel
A significant amount of international air travel these days is routed through the region. This will have a knock-on effect to global business and will include the travel plans for the majority of the race series that travel the world. Many Grands Prix and race teams are sponsored by Gulf-based airlines. Travel to Australia, China and Japan for many team personnel will include stops offs in Dubai or Doha.
You can imagine some frantic changes going on already, big logistical challenges for staff and freight, not to mention the cost increase. These are not insurmountable in this day and age but it’s a burden they don’t need. Not just F1 operations with hundreds of staff flying out, but also something like a small GT team running to a tight budget.
Events At Risk
In the immediate term there are four events to think about in March and April. There is then a gap before major international racing is scheduled to return in November. It is good the Asian Le Mans Series, FR Middle East, UAE F4, etc. all completed their seasons in February.
I will update this page over the next couple of weeks as news comes out.
March & April
22 March | FIA WEC | Prologue, Qatar – Moved to 14 April at Imola;
28 March | FIA WEC | Qatar 1812km – Rescheduled to 24 October;
Race postponed to ‘second half of season’. If things calm by mid-summer I would expect this race to be rescheduled to late October, there is a gap in the schedule, and the Bahrain race is in November. [Edit 13/03/26: race rescheduled to 24 October]
If tensions are still high by September, I anticipate Qatar and Bahrain will be cancelled and WEC may attempt to run one race somewhere else in replacement.
The Prologue has been moved to Imola on the Tuesday of race week.
12 April | MotoGP | Qatar Grand Prix – TBC;
Carlos Ezpeleta says they have been talking with Qatar/Lusail and while it is unlikely they will go, they can’t it rule out just yet. (Motorsport.com 04/03/26)
12 April | F1 | Bahrain Grand Prix – TBC;
19 April | F1 | Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – TBC;
As of the time of writing there is no news on F1’s plans. [Edit 13/03/26: These races are expected to be cancelled and not rescheduled.]
Also worth noting that Formula 2 and Formula 3 are scheduled to go from Melbourne to their next race in Bahrain. Decisions need to be taken on this.
Later in the year
Motorsport returns to the Gulf region at the end of the year. I’m expecting we won’t hear decisions about these until August/September at the earliest.
14 November | FIA WEC | 8H Bahrain – TBC;
29 November | F1 | Qatar Grand Prix – TBC;
6 December | F1 | Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – TBC;
Let us hope the situation has calmed by then and that cooler heads have prevailed.
There are only losers from this conflict, there are no winners.
For the 2026 race schedule we see one race gone, some important races moved, and add a new venue! But is it all good?
The 2026 Formula 1 season is soon upon us. It’ll be a really interesting season with new cars, new changes to the hybrid engines, new moveable aerodynamic devices, and new overtake boost rules replacing DRS.
For the 2026 race schedule we see one race gone, some important races moved, and add a new venue! But is it all good?
Get your Google Calendar for the 2026 F1 season right here!
Monaco’s Move
The biggest change in this year’s schedule is the movement of Monaco to June.
Montreal moves to 24th May, the Indy 500 date!
Monaco moves to 7th June.
Barcelona moves to 15th June, the weekend of the Le Mans 24 Hours!
If there are two big races in the world where clashes should be avoided, they are the Indy 500 and the Le Mans 24 Hours. My instinct is to deride the idea of putting a North American F1 race the same day. Let’s look more closely.
Indy 500: Usually Monaco ends a couple of hours before Indy starts. This year Indy runs first, Montreal will start just about when Indy ends. Literally minutes apart. It’ll be close, it’ll rely on no red flags or delays at Indy, not even a lot of Safety Car. But if all goes well only the pre-race and post-race coverage will clash. And that might prove perfectly fine for those at home, ignore the talking heads and just watch the racing. The downside will be for North American media coverage, especially Canadians who will have to choose where to be.
Le Mans 24 Hours: There will be a direct clash. The 24 Hours usually finishes at 4pm CET. At the time of writing, Barcelona is due to start at 2pm CET. This is clearly not good. If it’s an exciting finish to Le Mans you’ll probably stay on that. If the race is decided in the early hours, you might switch, or second screen F1. Many people will prioritise F1. But let’s be frank, as much as I love Spain, the Barcelona GP is rarely action-packed. It’s often a snoozer. It should be quite easy to follow both races if you have access to both feeds. Again, it’ll be a choice for those among European media who tend to cross over.
My problem is with the oxygen of publicity and airtime. F1 has a tendency to overwhelm everything else. The Indy 500 and Le Mans 24 Hours deserve to be the biggest stories of their respective weekends. That’s why I’m pleased Monaco is on a weekend where it can be the sole focus (with apologies to IndyCar at Gateway which follows it). It’s the addition of Montreal to that weekend that I don’t like.
But again, with all due respect to the importance and history of the Montreal and Barcelona races, they are not Monaco, or Indy, or Le Mans. This year I wonder if the prestige of Indy and Le Mans might carry their own weight against ‘regular season’ F1 GPs. I have a feeling that will be the case, at least among the fans.
Week To Week
The season starts a week earlier than last year and finishes in the same week.
Last year there was a triple-header in the first three weeks of April. This year, Suzuka moves a week earlier and there’s a week off before the Bahrain-Jeddah desert swing. Easter weekend is left clear.
The changes in May mean last year’s packed month, Miami followed by a triple-header of Imola-Monaco-Barcelona, looks very different. This year we still have Miami to open the month but the only other race in May is Montreal.
Obviously, in logistical terms it makes a lot of sense for Montreal to follow Miami. I just don’t know why it can’t be on one of the free weeks either side.
Most of the rest of the year follows a similar pattern to 2025.
It’s a tough end to the season. COTA, Mexico City, Interlagos run over three weeks, then there’s just a weekend off, before the Las Vegas, Qatar, Abu Dhabi triple.
We had this two years ago, but with two weekends off in between. Last year, there was a week off either side of Interlagos. Both years, everyone in the paddock looked absolutely shattered. They were pushed too far. This year is going to be even harder.
The 12-hour change from Las Vegas to Lusail is particularly brutal and I don’t understand it. I get why LV can’t be moved, you have to fit with the demands of a busy city, but I don’t understand why Lusail has to be the week after.
If we have to have Lusail, and I don’t know why we do because it is a terrible race and an awful way to end the year, could we not move it to join the Bahrain-Saudi races in March? We should really do the same with Abu Dhabi. This would give us races grouped by region, which would be great for travel plans and logistics. As fans you might even try to do as many as possible. But, Abu Dhabi pays a fortune to be the season-closer and that’s important money to F1.
New Venue
The title of the Spanish GP moves to the new street race around a convention centre in Madrid. A track called the MADRING – yes ALL CAPS! On the face of it the layout doesn’t look good, and the location doesn’t sound appealing, but it can be so hard to tell from a map. I hope it’s a better race than my expectations of it so far. I will keep an open mind. This will be the week after the Italian GP at Monza.
The old Spanish GP venue will now host a race called the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. In future years this will alternate with the Belgian GP at Spa. I have big concerns about this. When it was tried by the German GP it never worked. And so it collapsed. There were other reasons of course, including Schumacher’s retirement. But I fear the same will happen here to both races.
One sad bit of news is that 2026 sees the last Dutch GP for the foreseeable future. A shame. The changes to Zandvoort were brilliant and I love to see such a big excitable crowd there. The Dutch love a party and the energy coming through the TV screen surpasses anywhere else. Even if it means having to listen to bad techno.
We have also lost the Imola race which does not return this year. This is a shame, again the atmosphere there is brilliant and is sometimes worth the race itself perhaps not being quite as good as some others. Who doesn’t love Northern Italy in the Spring?
Sprint Races
The sprints at Spa, COTA and Qatar are gone.
Montreal, Silverstone and Singapore will host their first F1 Sprints. These join Shanghai and Miami which retain theirs from last year.
I think Montreal and Silverstone will work well. I am not so sure about Singapore, I have a feeling everyone will worry about trashing the cars so will play it safe.
There Are Too Many Races
I’ve always argued for quality over quantity. 17 or 18 races, that ballpark felt right. If you want to watch more than that get interested in other championships!
Start with F2 & F3. Move into IndyCar. Sportscars. MotoGP. Touring cars. There’s a world of other motorsport to get into. F1 is the gateway drug. The trouble is, with 24 weeks out of 52 devoted to F1, where’s the time for anything else?
Now we have 24 Grands Prix plus 6 sprints and it’s overwhelming. There is a Grand Prix on 46% of the weekends this year. How are we to have the time to watch other series, never mind hold other interests in our lives?
With six races in seven weeks to end the season, everyone in the paddock looks exhausted and I feel tired just watching it. It ends too late. Personally I would drop Lusail, Miami, Barcelona, Jeddah. These events would not be missed.
F1 should end in mid-November at the latest. The weekend currently occupied by Interlagos is perfect, and what a race to end on that would be.
Let’s keep the good venues and make them great events.
2026 F1 Calendar
You can add the 2026 F1 schedule to your calendars here!
As 2025 draws to a close, something which has struck me this year is the way competitors appear to respect each other more these days.
This is typified by the F1 title battle this year between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. It all seems very gentlemanly, may the best man win, but still intense. I don’t know that you can say they are the best of mates, but they seem to get on. Clearly they are both competitive and are driven to beat the other one and anyone else.
Large chunks of the F1 press have been very confused by this. They almost have an expectation that being team-mates it would automatically have the hostility of the Ayrton Senna versus Alain Prost days. Or the knife-edge intensity of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in 2016. Or in MotoGP a decade ago when Yamaha had to build a wall in the garage to prevent Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo from even seeing each other. It’s as if they are disappointed this hasn’t manifested in the Norris/Piastri fight. At least, not yet.
And let’s be clear, I love those battles too. Because I think that’s how *I* would be in that situation – angry and petulant. Wouldn’t you be? And for the media it’s obvious isn’t it? Needle sells copy, generates clicks, gets more views. But should we be disappointed?
In what was a busy weekend both in racing and personally, I found time to watch two live races and one recorded race (OK, so this was after the weekend). I also got one done before the weekend started.
It was annoying that my live picks were the most boring races I’ve seen in ages. I hope you fared better.
Formula 1 – R4 – Chinese Grand Prix
Shanghai International Circuit, Jiading, Shanghai, China
Seen live, 14th April
This race sums up the worst tropes of F1: lots of hype, not a lot of action.
The PR machine has been in overdrive about “the 1000th race” for a year. Yet when it came to it there seemed little happening at the track, a small handful of old F1 cars and very few dignitaries. They didn’t even get Bernie. What a waste.
The 1000th? Add the “World Championship for Drivers” since 1950, including those championship-counting Indy 500s and those races run to F2 rules, to the successor “Formula 1 World Championship” from 1981 onwards, then it is the 1000th race. This is not the same as the “1000th F1 race”, which doesn’t include Indy or those F2 races but does include all the non-championship F1 races back to 1948.
The Chinese GP is actually pretty good on a regular basis, Tilkedromes have this reputation of being terrible but Shanghai has been a great track over the years with overtaking and strategy. But not this year. This year was tedious.
Very little happened after lap one. I’ve seen many F1 GPs like this and I thought its type had been banished.
Hamilton passed Bottas at the first corner and ran off to win. To his credit, Bottas stayed within 7 or 8 seconds, the Mercedes pair basically cruising in team formation for the entire race. They even pitted together at the 2nd stops, choreographed beautifully, Bottas arrived just after Hamilton left and didn’t have to wait. This was done to protect against a Safety Car, with Ferrari and Verstappen having stopped already.
Ferrari played the strategy call. Vettel and Leclerc were switched but Leclerc was no faster, so he was put on the long game strategy and Vettel mirrored Mercedes. Running Leclerc long had put him behind Verstappen, he was able to close down the gap but not overtake, so this strategy was a net loss of 1 place. Gasly had a better day, close to Leclerc, the results sheet shows he was miles behind but he pitted near the end to successfully go for the fastest lap bonus point.
Renault won ‘best of the rest’ with Ricciardo. Alexander Albon had a fantastic run from a pitlane start to finish 10th. Kvyat and the two McLarens collided on lap one, two of the three retiring 40 laps later from the damage. I’ve no idea what happened elsewhere. TV direction seemed off par.
The Mercedes pair already have a significant points advantage over the field having finished 1st & 2nd in the first 3 GPs, the first time this has happened since Williams in 1992. This is starting to look a lot less close than pre-season testing suggested.
Next up is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in a couple of weeks.
Hamilton (Mercedes)
Bottas (Mercedes)
Vettel (Ferrari)
Verstappen (Red Bull)
Leclerc (Ferrari)
Driver
Team
CHI
TOTAL
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
25
68
Valterri Bottas
Mercedes
18
62
Max Verstappen
Red Bull
12
39
Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari
15
37
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
10
36
Pierre Gasly
Red Bull
9
13
Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo
2
12
Kevin Magnussen
Haas
8
Lando Norris
McLaren
8
Nico Hulkenberg
Renault
6
Constructor
PU
CHI
TOTAL
Mercedes
Mercedes
43
130
Ferrari
Ferrari
25
73
Red Bull
Honda
21
52
Alfa Romeo
Ferrari
2
12
Renault
Renault
6
12
Haas
Ferrari
8
McLaren
Renault
8
Racing Point
Mercedes
4
7
Toro Rosso
Honda
1
4
NTT IndyCar – R4 – Grand Prix of Long Beach
Long Beach, California, USA
Seen live, 14th April
This one promised a lot. I thought the hard-to-handle aero package would create a lot of sideways moments and overtakes, maybe some sliding into walls. Didn’t happen.
We don’t have any idiots at the back these days, the ones at street tracks who used to cause a bit of chaos that perhaps wasn’t always welcome, gave the series a bad name for weird accidents, but made it all fun. Those days are mostly gone.
Nobody told the back of the field. Lap 2 Pigot slowed, as everyone braked Ericsson ran into Harvey. We finally saw a car in the flowers at the fountain!
It was then a long green flag run at a race where strategy choices aren’t available. Unlike Barber you don’t get the mix of 2-stoppers versus 3-stoppers. The difference here was between those starting on red soft tyres and black hard tyres, and vice versa later, but it turned out not to make a lot of difference anyway. The reds were durable on the streets.
Rossi and Dixon raced hard into turn one on the original start and again on the restart. Each time the pair pulled a gap on the field.
At about lap 34 of 85, Power overshot turn 1 with dust pouring out of his left front brake duct. He spun it around and continued only losing a few places. Ferrucci had previously stalled in a runoff and the series recovered him under local yellow.
After pit stops, Newgarden was 2nd ahead of Dixon, but Rossi had him covered as well. Looked like he extended his lead in every stint. The battle for second was on between Newgarden, Dixon, Rahal, Hunter-Reay.
On the last lap Dixon made the move on Rahal, who defended stoutly and got a penalty for it. Dixon was awarded 3rd. This caused half of Twitter to erupt in anger at Rahal blocking Dixon and half of Twitter to erupt in anger at the stewards for penalising racing!
Watching live it looked like Rahal made a harsh move but a fair one, he left space for Dixon. I was against the penalty. But on review it became clear Rahal made a second move right and then returned to his racing line. I’m okay with picking one of two lines and sticking to it into the corner, I’m not so okay with weaving. And I also remembered if it had been Michael Schumacher I’d have been all over it, clamouring for a penalty, so I can’t argue otherwise for someone else!
Rossi wins by over 20 seconds, the highest for something like 25 years. With this he moves to 2nd in the points standings.
Newgarden extends his points lead as Dixon drops to 3rd. Hunter-Reay gains a few spots. Rahal is a big points mover into the top ten. Colton Herta the big loser, just 7 points after sliding into the wall and out with steering damage.
Next up is the GP of Indianapolis in a couple of weeks.
Rossi (Andretti)
Newgarden (Penske)
Dixon (Ganassi)
Rahal (Rahal)
Hunter-Reay (Andretti)
Driver
Team
Eng
LB
TOTAL
Josef Newgarden
Penske
Chevy
41
166
Alexander Rossi
Andretti
Honda
54
138
Scott Dixon
Ganassi
Honda
35
133
Takuma Sato
Rahal
Honda
25
116
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Andretti
Honda
30
96
James Hinchcliffe
Schmidt
Honda
22
93
Will Power
Penske
Chevy
27
93
Sebastien Bourdais
Coyne
Honda
19
91
Graham Rahal
Rahal
Honda
32
90
Colton Herta
Harding
Honda
7
88
ABB Formula E – R7 – Rome E-Prix
Rome, Italy
13th April, watched 16th April
Halfway in the season. 6 races done before this one, 6 races to go after this one.
As clean a start as you can manage here and on a damp track, a bit of bumping but okay. Guenther had a huge slide and loses parts of his front wing. At the end of the lap Bird gets hit, car damaged, apparently out for the second race in a row.
Chaos on lap two!
Red Flag. Lopez broadside across the track and Paffett under his car. Lopez hit the kerb and spun by himself and caused a complete track blockage. Luckily for those caught in the melee it was just in front of pit entry, so everyone once released was recovered and the race order restored. Replays showed Sims in the wall as well. And Sam Bird managed to get his car to the pits so it was repaired under the red and restarted last.
On the restart half the field activated Attack Mode, although it didn’t seem to achieve anything. Frijns got alongside Buemi for 4th but couldn’t make the move.
Lopez got a penalty for contact with Bird on lap one. Reliability trouble for Mortara and Massa so we had FCY in which JEV overtook Da Costa as they braked.
Evans passes Lotterer for the lead! Tense move! Very forceful into a chicane, elbowed his way through, got a warning from the race director but only a wag of the finger. Lotterer was fine with it, good hard racing.
Fairly strung out field but the pace was hot, unlike Rome 2018. Everyone pushed all the way, not a lot of energy saving except in the last lap or so, this is what we want to see. I don’t mind a lack of passing when the cars are visibly flat out.
Bird got up to 11th at the end, excellent recovery, great work by team and driver.
Evans (Jaguar)
Lotterer (Techeetah)
Vandoorne (HWA)
Frijns (Envision Virgin)
Buemi (Nissan e.Dams)
Name
Team
Rome
Points
Jerome d’Ambrosio
Mahindra
4
65
Ant Felix da Costa
BMW Andretti
2
64
Andre Lotterer
DS Techeetah
21
62
Mitch Evans
Jaguar
25
61
Lucas di Grassi
Audi Sport
6
58
Robin Frijns
Envision Virgin
12
55
Jean-Eric Vergne
DS Techeetah
54
Sam Bird
Envision Virgin
54
Eduardo Mortara
Venturi
52
Daniel Abt
Audi Sport
44
Team
PU
Rome
Points
DS Techeetah
DS
21
116
Envision Virgin
Audi
12
109
Mahindra
Mahindra
5
102
Audi Sport Abt
Audi
6
102
BMW Andretti
BMW
2
82
Venturi
Venturi
67
Nissan e.dams
Nissan
19
65
Jaguar
Jaguar
25
62
HWA Racelab
Venturi
15
22
NIO
NIO
6
European Le Mans Series – 2017 R4 – Le Castellet
Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet, France
26th August 2017, watched 10th April 2019
18 months behind! This one felt like ticking an item off a list. A shame, I really like the ELMS as a good way to while away an afternoon or evening
This time they used the chicane on the Mistral Straight so the only interesting thing about the track, the super-fast balls-out run into Signes, was lost
ELMS catches you out because when you think things are settled with huge gaps after the first hour – it changes. After three hours the order can be completely different. This catches me out because I tend to put endurance races on in the background while I get other stuff done.
Teams put their rated drivers in at different times. Early you see a Platinum or Gold driver racing away to a healthy lead while a Silver or Bronze driver loses loads of time. At the driver change it switches, the lead teams put in their Bronze driver and the distant cars suddenly get a Platinum at the wheel chasing them down. It converges.
In LMP2 Ben Hanley gave Dragonspeed a huge lead which was lost when Bronze driver Henrik Hedman faced the likes of Nic Minassian and Felipe Albuquerque chasing him. And the same principle applies in LMP3 and GTE. Niki Thiim brought the TF Sport Aston up from last to 2nd. You have to pay attention throughout.
Unfortunately this featureless track is a hard watch, I lost the thread in the middle as my mind drifted and got hold of it again in the last hour.
At least the mountains in the distance look nice.
But will I get the 2017 and 2018 seasons done before the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours?
LMP2:
SMP Racing (Dallara P217) – Isaakyan / Orudzhev;
G-Drive Racing (Oreca 07) – Rojas / Roussel / Minassian;
Graff (Oreca 07) – Guibbert / Petit / Trouillet;
First ELMS win for the SMP Dallara and their young driver pairing. A 4th straight podium for G-Drive.
LMP3:
United Autosports (Ligier JS P3) – Falb / Rayhall;
Inter Europol (Ligier JS P3) – Hippe / Smiechowski;
TF Sport (Aston Martin Vantage) – Hankey / Thiim / Yoluc;
JMW Motorsport (Ferrari 488) – Fannin / Smith / Cocker;
Second straight win for SOR, 4th straight podium for TF.
Next Week
15th to 21st April, Easter Weekend so much quieter than usual.
British GT at Oulton Park on Holiday Monday.
24H Series at Spa.
Super Formula at Suzuka.
British Superbikes at Silverstone (on the National layout).
It might be a good time to catch up on past races but I’ll be using it to start, yes, start, watching Game of Thrones! Now I’ve got Sky I can watch it On Demand so I’ve already downloaded them to the box.
And if it is wet weekend and I can’t get outside I’ll see if I can squeeze in a WEC race or something.
I Watch Too Much Racing 