Formula 1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali has said the championship is prepared to finish the 2026 season in Europe -- even if it means a race in the snow.
F1’s season is currently scheduled to finish with races in Qatar on Nov. 29 and Abu Dhabi on Dec. 6, but both look increasingly unlikely to go ahead due to the war in Iran.
F1 would need to rearrange at least one of those due to the commercial agreement it has with teams and broadcasters.
Sources have told ESPN that Imola in northern Italy is the top of the list of contingencies should an alternate destination be needed.
F1 is waiting until the middle of September before making a call on the final Middle East races, but it has already worked on a deal which saw the Bahrain Grand Prix relocated to Malaysia for Oct. 4 for the same reason.
“They are already sold out,” Domenicali said about the Qatar and Abu Dhabi races. “That is an incredible sign of how much the sport is bigger than the problem that our world is living through.
“But of course, if the situation will not be clearer the way that we believe it should be before middle of September, we will take the decision. And on that respect, I just want to confirm to you that if this will not be possible, the end of the season will be in Europe, because we cannot go in other places. So the end eventually will be in Europe.”
Imola, Domenicali’s hometown, returned as an F1 event during Covid and hosted the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix until last year.
Weather would raise obvious concerns about hosting a race there in early December -- at that time of year, average temperatures in the region are between 6-8°C, with heavy rainfall and even the chance of snow.
“The only possibility is to finish in Europe,” he added. “I’m hoping that there will be no snow ... Pirelli will not be ready to have the winter snow [tyres]... But now, seriously, I think that the weather should allow us to race in Europe even at the beginning of December.”
Domenicali said temperatures at a potential Imola finale would be no different to the conditions F1 drivers race with at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which is the first race in the triple header with Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
He said: “The fascinating side is that if I look at the statistics of the temperature in Europe in that time, it’s less cool than Las Vegas average temperature while we are racing. So no one knows what the temperature will be and what the weather will be like.”
Domenicali dismissed the idea of hosting a last-minute finale in the U.S., even though the paddock would already be in Las Vegas on Nov. 22.
“We will not do any other race in the U.S. ... We are fighting the U.S. against NFL and we need to avoid any kind of situation that would put us in front of something that is still very big in the U.S.,” he said.
“There was a possibility of having two races in Las Vegas, but we don’t want to ruin a jewel that is growing by undervaluing what we are doing there.”
He later reiterated: “I can guarantee you we won’t do another race in the U.S.”
Domenicali did not mention Austin’s Circuit of the Americas by name, but it appears a very good option -- a purpose-built facility in Texas, where weather will be much better.
