– Will Formula 1 still race in Qatar and Abu Dhabi this year or not? A decision is expected in the coming weeks, and if it is up to Qatar itself, the premier class is scheduled to travel to the emirate in November as planned.
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“The plan is to hold the race,” says Abdulrahman bin Abdullatif Al Mannai, president of Qatar’s national motorsport federation QMMF and the Lusail International Circuit. He emphasizes: “We are fully operational and preparing for MotoGP, and the same applies to our talks with Formula 1.”
MotoGP is scheduled to race in Qatar on November 8, with Formula 1 just three weeks later. However, the situation in the region remains problematic. Iran and the USA have not yet resolved their conflict, which leads to repeated rocket attacks.
Al Mannai stresses: “Qatar has been safe for several months. Our airport is operating at 100 percent, especially regarding transit flights between Asia and Europe. When you come to Qatar, you will see that normality has returned.”
However, Iran, for example, reportedly attacked US targets in Kuwait, Jordan, and Bahrain just this week. Qatar itself was indeed not affected, but Al Mannai admits: “Of course, some things cannot be predicted. It is difficult. We do not know what will happen.”
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“From our side, we cannot stop preparations. We have to be ready. We proceed step by step to observe and assess the situation. But at the moment, everything is fine. Everything remains as planned,” he emphasizes.
“It will depend on what happens in the next two months or so,” he explains. The problem, however, is that Formula 1 does not have much time left to make a decision. Because the races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi require a certain lead time.
“For logistical reasons, we all have to make a decision by September,” Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur recently explained. The timing factor could therefore currently speak more against than for Qatar.
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If the two races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi cannot take place at the end of the season, a season finale in Imola is currently being considered as a replacement.
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