Will F1 and MotoGP race in Qatar this year? What we know

Update: 26 September 2026

Formula 1 has a new deadline, and this time the teams have named it out loud. Sky Sports reported on 25 September that the call on the Qatar Grand Prix on 27 to 29 November and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 4 to 6 December is now expected in the middle of October. Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu said Stefano Domenicali is aiming to tell the teams then. Audi boss Mattia Binotto was blunter: “Mid-October is the last call for such a decision.” The reason is sea freight, which has to be committed to Qatar weeks before anyone gets on a plane.

Underneath that, two things have moved in opposite directions. Imola is no longer just a name on a list. The Race reported on 24 September that grandstands are going up there, with Formula 1 paying for the preparation so the circuit is not left out of pocket if the race never happens. At the same time Formula 1 still calls the Gulf races plan A, and Sky Sports’ F1 correspondent Craig Slater reported that unless the region gets worse again, both would go ahead. That is a long way from the AutoHebdo report of 7 September that had Imola taking Abu Dhabi’s slot with Qatar simply dropped.

MotoGP has gone the way almost nobody expected. Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta said in mid-September that the plan is still to race at Lusail on 6 to 8 November. Crash.net reported him on 19 September saying “right now the idea is to go”, that the Qatari authorities “are willing to organise it”, and that “if nothing changes radically, the idea is that we will go.” A month earlier The Race had reported that Dorna was preparing to cancel the round. Both series have also published 2027 calendars with Qatar on them, Formula 1 on 5 December 2027 and MotoGP as round two at Lusail on 12 to 14 March.

Update: 13 September 2026

Formula 1 has let its own deadline pass. Stefano Domenicali said in July that a decision on the Qatar Grand Prix on 29 November and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 6 December would come if the picture had not cleared “before the middle of September”. It is now the middle of September, nothing has been announced, and Reuters reported on 11 September that the call could slip into October. Both races are still on the official calendar.

Officially, nothing has changed. Domenicali said at Monza that the schedule is confirmed as it stands “right up until the final in Abu Dhabi”, and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem told the Associated Press on 8 September that it was “business as usual” and that “we are not changing anything unless we have to”. Away from the microphones, the Imola reports have hardened. The French magazine AutoHebdo reported on 7 September that Imola has been lined up for 4 to 6 December in place of Abu Dhabi, with Qatar dropped rather than replaced, and the Italian journalist Fulvio Solms has reported much the same. Reuters added that hotel rooms around Imola for that weekend are already expensive and scarce, with nothing official to explain why.

MotoGP is in the same holding pattern. Its Qatar round is still listed on motogp.com for 6 to 8 November, although The Race reported on 28 August that Dorna is preparing to cancel it outright, with no replacement. Dorna has not confirmed that.

Qatar says its races are going ahead. Formula 1 keeps putting off the decision. Italian officials are getting a circuit ready just in case. All three of those things are true at the same time, which is why this story is confusing, so here is what is actually confirmed, what is still open, and what to watch.

What Qatar is saying

Qatar is not hedging. Speaking to Reuters on 1 September, Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation president Abdul Rahman bin Abdullatif Al Mannai said the country is preparing for both its MotoGP round and its Formula 1 Grand Prix as though nothing will change.

“For us, we cannot stop the plans. We have to be ready,” he said, adding that “everything is a go-ahead.”

He also pushed back on the idea that Qatar itself is unsafe, telling Reuters the country “has been safe for months now” and that its airport is fully operational, including transit flights between Asia and Europe.

That last point matters more than it might sound. A Grand Prix is a freight operation before it is a sporting event, and if Doha’s airport is running normally, the practical argument against going is weaker.

Why people are asking in the first place

Because 2026 has already rearranged itself once, and not gently.

The conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran that began in February forced motorsport to redraw its calendars across the region. In Formula 1, the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian races scheduled for April were called off. Bahrain’s round was eventually relocated, not to another Gulf circuit but all the way to Sepang in Malaysia, which returned to the calendar in October for the first time in years.

MotoGP moved too. Its Qatar Grand Prix was due to run on 10-12 April and was postponed to 8 November, with the Portuguese round shifting to 22 November and the Valencia finale to 29 November.

Then, in a decision that told you a lot, the World Endurance Championship dropped its Qatar round scheduled for 24 October altogether and moved its racing to Spain and Italy instead.

So when people ask whether Qatar will really host F1 and MotoGP this year, they are not being alarmist. They are looking at a pattern.

The deadline that came and went

Here is the single most useful thing to know.

Formula 1 president and CEO Stefano Domenicali said in July that the Qatar and Abu Dhabi races were confirmed as things stood, but that a decision point was coming. If the situation had not become clear “before the middle of September,” he said, the call would be made then.

It was not made. Reuters reported on 11 September, citing paddock sources, that the decision is now likely to be pushed into October. By the end of September that had hardened into a date. Team bosses say Domenicali is aiming to tell them in the middle of October, and Binotto called that the last call. Part of the reason is unglamorous. Cancelling a Grand Prix means unpicking contracts, insurance and money, and none of that is quick.

Domenicali has been blunt about what the alternative looks like. If the Gulf rounds cannot happen, “the end of the season would be in Europe,” because, in his words, there is nowhere else to go.

That is worth reading twice. F1 is not talking about swapping one desert circuit for another. It is talking about ending its season on a different continent.

Imola, and nobody will say it out loud

One name keeps coming up, and it is not a surprising one: Imola.

The Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari lost its place on the 2026 calendar when Madrid joined, which means it is a fully homologated Grand Prix venue with an empty diary. Monza has just hosted the Italian Grand Prix, and Italian outlets including La Gazzetta dello Sport and Autosprint have reported it as the leading fallback, and Italian motorsport federation president Geronimo La Russa has publicly called it the ideal solution, saying the ACI is working with government and sporting institutions to be ready to host a second Italian Grand Prix.

Since this article was first published, that reporting has gone a step further. AutoHebdo reported on 7 September that Imola is set for 4 to 6 December in place of Abu Dhabi, and that the Qatar race will simply be dropped rather than replaced. Fulvio Solms reported around the same time that the finale has effectively been assigned to Imola for 6 December.

Neither report is confirmed, and Domenicali has denied it in public. PlanetF1 reported on 12 September that Imola is being held as a backstop for the Abu Dhabi weekend, which is exactly what allows Formula 1 to leave the decision this late. Since then the preparation has become physical. The Race reported on 24 September that grandstands are being built at Imola, with Formula 1 covering the cost so the circuit carries no financial risk if the race is never needed. Formula 1 still describes the Gulf races as the plan, though. Sky Sports’ Craig Slater reported on 25 September that unless the region deteriorates again, both Qatar and Abu Dhabi would go ahead.

The most convincing detail, though, is not a quote. It is that teams have reportedly begun booking hotels around Imola for late November and early December, and that Reuters found rooms there for the 6 December weekend already pricey and close to full. Teams book beds when they think they might need them. That is not confirmation, but it is a tell.

Nobody in the paddock seems thrilled about the uncertainty itself. Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu summed up the mood simply: the sooner a decision comes, the better. Williams boss James Vowles was more cheerful about the sporting side, pointing out that a Formula 1 race at Imola in December would produce genuinely unpredictable weather.

For MotoGP, no replacement venue has been publicly named, and it may turn out that none is needed. The Race reported on 28 August that Dorna is preparing to cancel the Qatar round outright and run 21 rounds instead of 22. Dorna never confirmed it, and in mid-September its chief executive said close to the opposite. Crash.net reported Carmelo Ezpeleta on 19 September saying “right now the idea is to go”, that the Qatari authorities “are willing to organise it”, and that “if nothing changes radically, the idea is that we will go.” The race is still on the official calendar for 6 to 8 November, and the Qatari federation says its preparations are continuing.

Who actually makes this call

This is where a lot of coverage gets muddled, so it is worth being precise.

The FIA is the governing body. It writes and enforces the sporting and safety rules, and it has to approve any change to the World Championship calendar. But the commercial calendar, meaning which race happens where and whether a promoter’s event goes ahead, sits with Formula 1 itself. That is why every substantive public statement on this has come from Domenicali, and why the mid-September deadline was his to name and his to let slide.

For MotoGP, the equivalent split is between the FIM as governing body and Dorna as the commercial rights holder. Dorna moved the April Qatar race, not the FIM.

Neither the FIA nor the FIM has issued a public statement setting out a threat threshold for cancelling these events. If you see that claim reported as fact, it is worth asking where it came from.

What to watch next

Three things, in order of usefulness.

Mid-October. The mid-September window has gone and the new target is the middle of October. The 2027 calendars have since arrived, and they point the other way. Formula 1 published its 2027 schedule on 16 September with Qatar on 5 December and Abu Dhabi on 12 December, and Bahrain and Saudi Arabia back in March. MotoGP published its own on 25 September with Qatar as round two, at Lusail on 12 to 14 March. Neither list is a promise about this November, but neither is the behaviour of a sport planning to leave the Gulf.

Freight and travel bookings. Logistics move before announcements do. Hotel blocks, charter schedules and sea-freight bookings are the earliest honest signal in this sport.

MotoGP first. The MotoGP round on 8 November comes three weeks before the F1 date of 29 November. Whatever happens to it will be the clearest indication of what happens to Formula 1 three weeks later.

The honest summary

Qatar wants these races, has invested heavily in being the region’s reliable host, and is saying all the right things. That is genuine, and its position is stronger than the WEC cancellation makes it look.

But Formula 1 let its own September deadline pass without using it, grandstands are going up at a circuit that has no race, and Formula 1 is paying for them. Those are not the actions of a sport that is certain about November.

Both Formula 1 races are still on the calendar today, and so is MotoGP’s. Nothing has been cancelled and nothing has been moved. What has changed since early September is that the decision now has a date, the middle of October, and that both championships have put Qatar back on their 2027 calendars while they wait.

Reporting in this article is based on Reuters’ 1 September interview with the QMMF and its 11 September report on the calendar decision, Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s 8 September interview with the Associated Press, public comments from Stefano Domenicali, and reporting by AutoHebdo, The Race, PlanetF1, La Gazzetta dello Sport, Autosprint, Motorsport.com and Crash.net. The 26 September update draws on Sky Sports’ 25 September report, The Race’s 24 September report, Crash.net’s 19 September report of Carmelo Ezpeleta, and the 2027 calendars published by Formula 1 on 16 September and by MotoGP on 25 September. Last updated 26 September 2026.