FIA Confirms 2026 F1 Calendar Backup Plan After Middle East Race Cancellations

The FIA’s preference, from a logistics standpoint, is to bring back Bahrain.

“From a logistical point of view, it’s about determining the best scenario. We are consulting with the promoters. It’s about knowing where we want to go, and we will try to facilitate things, but without putting our staff under pressure. That would be too much.”

But pressure is building from Saudi stakeholders who want Jeddah reinstated too, with officials pushing hard for a late-season return given the race’s commercial importance to the sport‘s Gulf expansion plans.

Rising tensions in the region aren’t just a problem for the races already lost.

“There is a bigger problem than motorsport,” he continued. “It’s the way we live, the changes, the stress in this region.”

“If we’re talking about the leaders there, as governments, the way they handled the situation, by not retaliating, was very wise. It takes strength not to do so.”

He added: “Sport can wait. What is more important? Human beings or motorsport? Or any sport? Human beings are always the priority. Hopefully this will end soon, so we can get back to normal and not live like we are now, with this stress.

“God forbid, if this continues until October or November, we simply won’t have to go, because safety comes first.”

Turkey, sitting outside the conflict zone entirely, is now positioning itself as a reliable alternative, with its geography, established infrastructure, and a track record of stepping in during calendar crises, for example during the pandemic years, making it a credible option in a way that few circuits can claim.

Whether that’s a contingency or an inevitability depends on events that have nothing to do with turning a steering wheel.