F1 targets Bahrain or Jeddah return for 2026

Formula 1 and Liberty Media are trying to put at least one of Bahrain or Saudi Arabia back on the 2026 calendar, but any rescue plan is being shaped as much by war-driven uncertainty as by whether teams can survive the logistical and human strain of adding another race.

Liberty Media CEO Derek Chang said on the company’s first-quarter 2026 investor call that F1 is still evaluating late-season options. “We will proceed cautiously and continue to evaluate the calendar this year. It could be possible to reschedule a race toward the end of the season,” Chang said, adding that Stefano Domenicali and his team are working overtime on contingency plans.

That leaves the championship still aiming to recover at least one of the April events lost in the Middle East, with Liberty Media director of accounting Brian Wendling saying current planning remains based on a 22-race season. The cleanest slot is the open weekend between Azerbaijan and Singapore, with one reported scenario placing a race on 02-04 October.

Even that solution would come at a cost. It would add another triple-header to an already compressed second half of the year and increase the pressure on teams in both staffing and freight movement.

The alternative is tougher still. If F1 tries to add Bahrain or Jeddah at the end of the season, Abu Dhabi’s contractually protected status as the final race means Yas Marina would have to move back by a week. That would likely create a four-race closing stretch with Las Vegas, Qatar and the rescheduled event, while also disrupting the post-Abu Dhabi Pirelli test that teams use to gather data for 2027.

Domenicali said the timing of any move depends on how the wider situation develops and on the knock-on effect across the paddock. “The deadlines or time windows change depending on whether we have to make up what was not raced in April, or react to what could happen at the end of November or beginning of December. We are coordinating with teams and organizers because every decision has a domino effect,” he said on the investor call.

That domino effect is most obvious in logistics. Team and Pirelli material is still said to be in Bahrain, and the region normally acts as a central freight hub for F1 operations, particularly through Dubai or Doha for Asian events. Alternative transport solutions were already needed for Japan, and some containers, including chassis, reportedly returned to factories with delays of more than a week.

Those freight issues matter competitively because transport of materials counts against the budget cap, even if travel costs for personnel do not. Any reshuffle would force teams to rework sea-freight plans and race-to-race cargo flows under existing sustainability rules, with smaller operations especially exposed.

The biggest burden, though, may be on people rather than parts. A restored race would push the second half of the season to 12 events in 16 weeks, leaving many senior trackside staff facing almost four months without a real break from home. Top teams can rotate some mechanics and support staff more easily, but driver engineers, specialist technicians and sporting leads are far harder to replace, which is why adding back even one Middle East round has become a test of endurance as much as calendar flexibility.