Floodlights over the Losail circuit in Qatar during a 2010 MotoGP weekend. Illustrative image, not from this year's races. Photo: daly3d abd from Qatar, Doha via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
With Imola stood down, Formula 1’s 2026 season is still set to finish in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. According to reports from PlanetF1, The Race and RacingNews365, F1 told the Italian circuit on Tuesday that it would not be needed as a backup finale. Today’s confirmed news adds one driver announcement: Racing Bulls will keep Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad for 2027.
Schedules and announcements below come from formula1.com, the FIA, the circuit organizers and MotoGP’s official site, checked on Nov. 12. Anything that rests on press reports rather than an official statement is labeled that way.
The one storyline: Imola is stood down, and the Gulf finale is on
Here is what is reported. F1 told Imola it would not host a replacement finale, and informed teams that Qatar (race day Sunday, Nov. 29, at Lusail) and Abu Dhabi (Sunday, Dec. 6, at Yas Marina) stay on the calendar. Imola had been held in reserve for a December 4 to 6 event. PlanetF1 reports that F1 said it could not keep the circuit on standby indefinitely and will cover the costs of the preparations made so far.
Here is what is still open. All three outlets paraphrase the decision, and I could not find a full statement on formula1.com, so treat the details as reported. The Race says F1 is reviewing threat assessments “on an hourly basis” and would not hesitate to pull the plug if the risk became unnecessary. RacingNews365 adds that the call is not final and that F1 will act if the situation worsens. On the FIA side, president Mohammed Ben Sulayem said earlier this week that both races will go ahead, as we covered in Tuesday’s briefing. That briefing said F1 had not yet confirmed the finale. These reports, published later the same day, change that picture.
Analysis: standing Imola down removes the safety net, and that is the real change. Until now, a cancellation in the Gulf had somewhere to go. From here, any late change would mean a shortened season, not a swap. That raises the stakes on the freight and travel questions we examined in our look at the Gulf finale, and it sits alongside Yamaha’s decision to skip MotoGP Qatar, a reminder that individual teams have already made their own risk calls.
Race and session schedule
I found no Formula 1, MotoGP or NASCAR track action today. NASCAR finished its season at Homestead on Nov. 8 and the World Endurance Championship at Monza. All times below are Eastern, converted from each series’ published times, and every timetable is subject to change.
- Rally Saudi Arabia, Nov. 11 to 14: running as a round of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship rather than the World Rally Championship, per the FIA’s September announcement.
- Formula 1, Las Vegas Grand Prix (official timetable): Practice 1 Thursday, Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m., Practice 2 Thursday at 11 p.m., Practice 3 Friday, Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m., Qualifying Friday at 11 p.m., Grand Prix Saturday, Nov. 21 at 11 p.m. (50 laps or two hours). F1 Academy also races in Las Vegas that weekend.
- MotoGP, Portuguese Grand Prix at Portimão, Nov. 20 to 22: the circuit’s own event page lists free practice Friday, qualifying and the sprint Saturday, and the race Sunday. It gives no session times, so check motogp.com before you plan around start times.
- Formula 1, Qatar Grand Prix, Nov. 27 to 29 (formula1.com): Practice 1 Friday at 8:30 a.m., Practice 2 Friday at noon, Practice 3 Saturday at 9:30 a.m., Qualifying Saturday at 1 p.m., Race Sunday at 11 a.m. The page does not label its time zone. The times above assume it shows UTC, which is how its Las Vegas listing reads, so confirm before travelling.
- Formula 1, Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: race day is Sunday, Dec. 6 at Yas Marina. I did not find a confirmed session timetable.
The Las Vegas and Portimão weekends overlap, so Friday night and Saturday morning will be split between two series.
Penalties and stewards’ decisions
I found no new penalties published today. These are the latest decisions from the São Paulo Grand Prix, which ended on Nov. 8:
- Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes): five-second time penalty for an unsafe release, according to Crash.net. It did not change his fifth-place finish. This settles the investigation we flagged as undecided on Tuesday.
- Oliver Bearman (Haas): five seconds for releasing him into the path of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, per PlanetF1. He finished 17th and the result did not change.
- Leclerc and Albon: both took five-second penalties on track in São Paulo. Our breakdown of the Leclerc penalty and our piece on Albon’s super licence points cover the consequences.
Driver changes
- Racing Bulls (Formula 1), confirmed today: Lawson and Lindblad both extended and will race for the team in 2027, Formula1.com reports. Lawson has 89 points and Lindblad 38 as a rookie, and the team sits fifth in the constructors’ standings. The announcement does not name Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov, who was the other candidate.
- Haas (Formula 1): the same report says Haas has not yet announced a contract for Bearman, though both sides want to continue. Rafael Câmara’s debut for Haas in São Paulo is covered in our earlier report; I found nothing new on Las Vegas.
- Honda (MotoGP): Jake Dixon replaced the injured Joan Mir in Qatar, and Luca Marini withdrew from that weekend with fatigue, according to MotoGP’s news page. Mir is recovering at home. I found no confirmed Honda line-up for Portimão. Our report on Dixon’s call-up has the background.
- Ducati (MotoGP): Francesco Bagnaia was ruled out of Qatar with right foot fractures, and MotoGP’s page reports his surgery on Nov. 10 was successful. His Portimão status is not confirmed. Our Qatar analysis shows what the title math looks like heading to Portugal.
Official announcements
- Racing Bulls (Nov. 12): the 2027 line-up, via Formula1.com.
- FIA (Nov. 11): a record entry for the FIA Intercontinental Drifting Cup’s Greek debut, listed on the FIA news page.
- FIA (Nov. 10): results of the third engine-upgrade analysis period of 2026 for Formula 1, also on the FIA news page.
- Formula 1 (Nov. 8): the Las Vegas timetable, which also shows Mercedes as 2026 constructors’ champions.
- NASCAR (Nov. 8): the Homestead championship race recap. For a driver’s-eye view of that race, see our Chase Elliott piece.
Schedules, results and statements were taken from formula1.com, the FIA, the Algarve circuit, motogp.com and nascar.com, plus the press reports named above. Confirm session times on each series’ official site before you plan around them.
Related Reading on Backfire Racing
- The Grid Today, Nov. 10: FIA Says the Qatar and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix Are On, but F1 Hasn’t
- F1’s Gulf Finale Doesn’t Hinge on a UK Travel Notice. It Hinges on Freight.
- Retire on an Eighth Title? Marc Márquez Would Be Stopping on a Tie, Not a Record
Image credits: Featured image: Floodlights over the Losail circuit in Qatar, 2010 MotoGP weekend, by daly3d abd from Qatar, Doha via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0. In-article photos: Jmmuguerza (Imola pit lane, CC BY-SA 4.0); Liauzh (Joan Mir, CC BY-SA 4.0).
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