F1 close to announcing in China the cancellation of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia
The only thing missing is the officialization that would arrive on the Shanghai weekend. The visits to the Middle East will be crossed off the agenda of F1, F2 and F3 due to the war in the area and will not be replaced.
The situation in the Middle East is far from calming down, quite the opposite. The war escalated and Iran continued its bombings against Dubai and Bahrainwhile the United States and Israel continued their operation against the Islamic Republic. In the midst of all this, Formula 1 has visits to Bahrain (4/12) and Saudi Arabia (4/19) on its agenda. Since the war broke out, Liberty Media (owner of the commercial rights to Formula 1) and the FIA closely followed the situation to make a decision regarding the Sakhir and Jeddah events. Initially, there was speculation that the decision would be announced in the interim between the dates in China and Japan, however, everything will be brought forward for this weekend in Shanghai: the two races will be cancelled.
As anticipated, the skills will not be replaced. When rumor began to point to the cancellation of the two Middle East races, the rumor placed Imola and Portimao as possible hosts, however, it will not happen and the F1 agenda will be reduced to 22 dates. The break will be five weeks (four weekends without races), from the Japanese GP on the 29th to the Miami GP on May 3.
During the team leaders’ press conference this Friday in China, Jonathan Wheatley, director of Audi, was consulted about the situation in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and the deadlines that the teams were managing due to logistics issues. The Englishman opted for a logical political response that sounded like an agreement behind the scenes to succeed in a query about the situation.
“I think we follow the guidelines of the FIA and Formula 1, as always. They have always guided us in the right direction. Nobody is going to give in to anything that puts the teams in an uncomfortable situation. We are all very capable of… One of the most important aspects of the business is the logistics, not only of the parts, but also of the people who transport them around the world. The teams are very good at that. If something happened along those lines, it would just be a small obstacle, we would just work through it. “To be honest, I don’t see any real problems,” he said.
Formula 2 and Formula 3 had three days of testing in Bahrain on the 25th, 26th and 27th of this month and the teams would travel directly from Australia to the Sakhir circuit. Given the situation, the teams’ materials remained in Melbourne awaiting the decision. F2 will cancel the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and your agenda will be reduced from 14 to 12 dates. Meanwhile, F3 would only compete in the Bahrain event and with the suspension the calendar will drop from 12 to 11. Both categories will only take to the track again in Monaco, on the first weekend of June.
