The championship’s two Gulf rounds are still on the calendar, and the cargo containers to run them are already being shipped. F1 has nonetheless taken all 11 teams through step-by-step evacuation scenarios for the Qatar Grand Prix at Lusail on November 29 and the Abu Dhabi finale at Yas Marina on December 6, according to a message seen by ESPN.

Freight from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku is already routed to Qatar, and the equipment used at the Bahrain race held in Malaysia is on its way to Abu Dhabi. F1 says it is in constant contact with authorities in Doha and Abu Dhabi and that, as things stand, both events have been assured as safe.

The November 10 cut-off

The teams have been told the deadline to approve Imola as a replacement is November 10, according to GPblog. Should either Gulf race be cancelled after that date, the plan laid out to teams is to end the 2026 season at Las Vegas on November 22 rather than try to stage a late substitute.

That would leave a 21-race calendar, after Saudi Arabia dropped out earlier in the year and took the schedule from 24 to 23. The combined sanctioning fees for Qatar and Abu Dhabi are estimated at around $95 million, a figure an Imola stand-in would not come close to recovering.

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Temporary grandstands at Imola were green-lit more than six weeks ago, with F1 agreeing to cover the construction cost even if the circuit is not needed.

Red Bull on the practical headache

The option sounds clean on paper and is anything but inside the paddock. Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies flagged the logistical complexity back in September, pointing to the European motorhome structure teams would have to rebuild on short notice at an unplanned circuit.

Audi racing director Allan McNish put the current posture bluntly to gpblog.

“All our logistics are en route. So we don’t have a deadline. It’s a deadline of the championship.”

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Worst-case fears behind closed doors

Senior figures in the paddock are more worried than the official line suggests. Benson reported for the BBC that private concern centers on the possibility of the sport arriving in the region before the situation deteriorates again.

“Imagine the situation stays quiet, and then the missiles start flying again once the sport is out in the Middle East. If that means personnel are trapped there and can’t get out, never mind people getting hurt or even killed, the PR consequences for F1 would be enormous,” Benson wrote for the BBC, via Yahoo Sports.

Max Verstappen, asked to repeat his earlier reservations about racing in the Gulf, kept the door open.

“It also depends a bit on what they can guarantee in terms of safety and what happens over the coming weeks.”

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Carlos Sainz briefly voiced concerns of his own before retracting them within two hours, after F1 asked drivers and teams to keep criticism out of public view.

The championship itself is no longer in play. Kimi Antonelli clinched the drivers’ title at the Mexico City Grand Prix, removing the sporting stakes from the scheduling fight but not the financial and reputational ones.

Next flashpoint on the calendar is November 10, when F1 has to decide whether the Imola fallback is activated or whether the Lusail and Yas Marina events stay in place as planned.

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