RacingA sponsor-driven push could turn the 2026 Formula 1 season into a four-race run-in, lining up Las Vegas, Qatar, Jeddah on December 6, and Abu Dhabi on December 13, with Abu Dhabi still closing the year. That is the scenario Robert Doornbos outlined as talks continue to reinsert the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix late in the calendar after the April Middle East cancellations. Doornbos, a former F1 driver involved with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix organization, described the discussions on Ziggo Sport’s De Stamtafel.
Doornbos said pressure is building to bring Jeddah back, pointing to sponsor influence on the revival push. “We know the weight of Aramco as a sponsor of Formula 1,” Robert Doornbos, former F1 driver involved with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix organization, said on Ziggo Sport’s De Stamtafel. He added that the Saudi event continues to be heavily promoted. “They are doing a huge promotion of the event in Jeddah, because it is their jewel. Jeddah could still return to the calendar this year,” Robert Doornbos, former F1 driver involved with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix organization, said on Ziggo Sport’s De Stamtafel.
The race in Saudi Arabia had been on the April schedule before the geopolitical situation forced its cancellation. Now the working idea, according to Doornbos, is to shift Abu Dhabi back one week to December 13 and drop Jeddah into the gap, creating a compressed finale that starts in Las Vegas and rolls into Qatar before heading to Saudi Arabia. “They now say they could move Abu Dhabi by a week and insert Jeddah between the two,” Robert Doornbos, former F1 driver involved with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix organization, said on Ziggo Sport’s De Stamtafel.
Any late-season return for Jeddah would not change who hosts the final round. Doornbos was clear that Abu Dhabi’s status is locked by contract and has been for a long time. “Abu Dhabi has a contract that says they always host the last race. It has been that way for 15 years,” Robert Doornbos, former F1 driver involved with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix organization, said on Ziggo Sport’s De Stamtafel.
There is no signed-off change yet. Doornbos cautioned that the plan depends on how the situation in the Middle East develops and that timing remains fluid. “We will probably have to wait a bit before these changes are confirmed,” Robert Doornbos, former F1 driver involved with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix organization, said on Ziggo Sport’s De Stamtafel.
For now, the message is clear: Jeddah is back in the conversation for 2026, with December 6 circled, and Abu Dhabi, as ever, set to bring the curtain down a week later.