Formula 1 has canceled its Imola backup plan for the season finale, clearing Qatar and Abu Dhabi to close out 2026 as scheduled despite ongoing Middle East tensions. Imola was on standby for a December 6 finale after safety concerns from the US-Israel-Iran conflict forced Bahrain and Saudi Arabia off the calendar earlier this year — Bahrain eventually ran in Malaysia in September through an unprecedented deal with Sepang. F1 was prepared to underwrite $10-15 million to get Imola race-ready but pulled the plug this week after continuous threat assessments from intelligence services and foreign offices showed the Gulf races could proceed. The decision buys two more weeks until Las Vegas before freight ships east. Still, F1 isn't locked in — Stefano Domenicali has shown he'll cancel on short notice, as he did with Imola in 2023 for flooding and Russia in 2022. Hourly monitoring continues through Abu Dhabi. For now, the championship finishes where it planned to.
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