F1 Scraps Imola Fallback and Commits to Qatar and Abu Dhabi Finale

Formula 1 has abandoned its contingency plan to race at Imola and confirmed that the 2026 season will end in Qatar and Abu Dhabi as scheduled. If the Iran war escalates dramatically, those races will be dropped rather than replaced. The FIA president has indicated the decision is final now that the deadline for activating an Imola back-up has passed. It settles the calendar two days after a wet Brazilian Grand Prix in which Lando Norris won from pole, Mercedes sealed the constructors’ championship and Max Verstappen climbed from 21st to second.

No Imola, no plan B for the Gulf finale

Several outlets, including Autosport, Motorsport.com and RaceFans, report the same position. Rounds 22 and 23 will go ahead in Qatar and Abu Dhabi unless the regional conflict worsens significantly. If it does, there will be no substitute venue. The season would simply finish in Las Vegas after 21 rounds.

Imola was the obvious insurance policy. It lost its place on the calendar after 2025, so it offered a recently used Grade 1 circuit, a willing promoter and the advantage of being in Europe, where most teams are based. Keeping that option open had costs, though. The circuit would have to be staffed, marshals recruited, tickets sold and freight routes planned, all for a race that might never happen. Once the deadline passed, the fallback stopped being a realistic option.

What a 21-round season would freeze

The sporting stakes help explain why F1 feels able to commit without a safety net. Both titles are settled, so a curtailed season would not decide a champion on a technicality. Plenty would still be frozen, however:

• Second place in the drivers’ standings, where five drivers are covered by 33 points.
• Constructors’ positions two to four, which determine prize money and are not yet fixed.
• The midfield order, where Haas lead Audi by just three points for seventh.

There is precedent for F1 waiting, wavering and eventually withdrawing. The 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix was postponed and later cancelled amid unrest, after a long period of public uncertainty that served nobody well. Removing the Imola option at least ends this year’s version of that limbo for teams and fans.

The weakness lies in the phrase “dramatic escalation”. It is a judgement rather than a threshold. F1 and the FIA should be open about who makes that call and on what basis, because the people travelling include mechanics, hospitality staff and journalists as well as drivers. Committing to the Gulf is a defensible decision, and Abu Dhabi has closed every season since 2014. The commitment will only command confidence if the conditions for withdrawing from it are clearly stated.

Mercedes complete the job in the Interlagos rain

Mercedes left Brazil on 652 points, 142 clear of Ferrari. With a maximum of 43 points per team per Grand Prix, 129 remain available across the final three rounds, so the constructors’ championship is theirs. Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s drivers’ title was already beyond reach before the weekend began. He arrived 119 points ahead of Verstappen with only 100 still on offer. At 20, he will be the youngest world champion in the sport’s history.

The numbers capture the scale of it. Mercedes have won 12 of the 20 Grands Prix, nine for Antonelli and three for George Russell. The comparison with 2014 is unavoidable. That was the last time a sweeping regulation change reset the field, and Mercedes again emerged with the reference package.

Brazil was not their sharpest afternoon. Antonelli started second and finished fifth, while Russell came through from seventh to fourth. Twenty-two points was still enough to finish the job, and that matters. Titles won on modest days reflect a car and an operation that bank points even when conditions turn against them.

Norris finds his weekend

The race belonged to Norris, who converted pole into his third win of the season in the wet. His defence of his crown has been frustrating, and he sits sixth on 246 points. Leading a rain-affected race from the front, where one mistake undoes everything, was a reminder of the driver who won the title a year ago. McLaren have three wins this year, all of them his.

Five drivers, 33 points: the fight to be runner-up

With the title settled, the most open contest left is for second place.

Position	Driver	Team	Points	Gap to P2
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	279	–
3	George Russell	Mercedes	262	17
4	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	261	18
5	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	249	30
6	Lando Norris	McLaren	246	33

With 75 points still available, all five remain in contention. Verstappen strengthened his grip on second with the drive of the weekend, rising from 21st on the grid to second at the flag in difficult conditions. Gaining 19 places in the wet requires speed, judgement and a strategy that keeps a driver out of trouble. Verstappen managed all three.

Daniel Ricciardo, his former team-mate, said this week that Verstappen has secured his place among the sport’s all-time greats, according to Crash.net. Few would argue. What makes this season persuasive is the context. Red Bull are third in the constructors’ standings and have won three races, all through Verstappen. He has scored more than twice as many points as Isack Hadjar, who is having a respectable season of his own. Second place in a car that is not the class of the field would arguably say more about Verstappen than some of his title-winning years.

Las Vegas suits him. He has won two of the three races held there, and Russell won the other. Russell is the obvious threat, with the advantage of the car that has won most often this season. Hamilton and Leclerc need Ferrari to recover the form that has deserted them, which leads to Brazil’s most difficult story.

Hamilton’s 65-place weekend and Ferrari’s lost ground

Lewis Hamilton went into Saturday facing a 10-place grid penalty. Then smoke poured from his Ferrari in final practice, and the eventual total reached 65 places. He started 20th and finished ninth, a lap down, collecting two points. Afterwards he described himself as “devastated” by how the race ended for him and the team, GPfans reports, and said he wants answers from Ferrari.

Ferrari have explained their handling of the penalty to PlanetF1. The usual logic in these situations is simple. Once a penalty pushes a driver to the back of the grid, extra new components cost nothing further that weekend. Teams therefore install as many fresh elements as they reasonably can to reduce the risk of penalties at later rounds. With three races left, there is clear value in doing so before Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The wider concern is what the failure says about Ferrari heading into 2027. A smoking power unit in final practice, this late in the first season of new regulations, cannot be treated as an isolated problem. It feeds directly into next year’s reliability and development planning. Charles Leclerc salvaged four points by moving from 14th to eighth, but Ferrari’s total of six in Brazil compared poorly with 33 each for Red Bull and McLaren.

Ferrari remain second in the constructors’ championship on 510 points, 95 ahead of Red Bull, which should be enough with three rounds left. Hamilton has a single win this season and sits fourth, one point behind Russell. His frustration is understandable after a weekend ruined by reliability rather than performance. Ferrari’s job is to give him a clear technical explanation and a car that lasts until Abu Dhabi.

Seats in play: Lawson’s case and Ocon’s exit

Mekies steps back on Lawson

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has praised Liam Lawson’s recent form, Crash.net reports, while making clear that any decision on his 2027 future belongs to Racing Bulls. Brazil supported Lawson’s case. He qualified third and finished seventh, keeping his head in a race that caught out others who started near the front. On 89 points and ninth in the championship, he is comfortably his team’s leading scorer. Rookie team-mate Arvid Lindblad, 11th on Sunday, has 38.

Mekies’ deference is significant given recent history. Lawson was moved out of the senior team after two races in 2025, an abrupt decision typical of Red Bull’s driver management at the time. Saying that the junior team decides its own line-up suggests a more structured approach. It also leaves Lawson’s future with a team that would be unwise to break up its most consistent points scorer.

Hadjar’s third place, from fifth on the grid, also helps Red Bull’s planning. A team-mate who can take points from Verstappen’s rivals is valuable in a constructors’ fight that remains close.

Ocon looks for a way back

Esteban Ocon has posted what he called a heartfelt message to those who supported him after Haas ended his contract early over the Mexico City weekend, according to RacingNews365. In Brazil, Haas ran Oliver Bearman alongside Rafael Camara. Camara qualified 11th and finished 20th. Bearman started sixth but dropped to 17th, which showed how difficult the conditions were for a reshuffled team.

Dismissing a driver this late in the season is unusual. Haas have not given a detailed public explanation, and this column will not guess at one. Ocon is a Grand Prix winner, having triumphed in Hungary in 2021, with long experience in the midfield. That should count for something, but the market rarely favours drivers who are unemployed late in the year.

Formula E barbs, Piastri’s drought and the road to Vegas

• The “dinosaur” jibe. An Australian billionaire who has invested in Formula E called F1 a “smelly old dinosaur” that belongs in a museum, RacingNews365 reports. Rivalry between series is healthy, but Formula E will be judged on how it grows its own audience rather than on attacks on F1.
• Third in the constructors’ standings. Red Bull lead McLaren by 17 points. Both teams scored 33 in Brazil, so the remaining three rounds should decide it.
• Piastri’s barren year. Oscar Piastri finished sixth from 10th but remains without a win, on 152 points and 94 behind his team-mate. A victory before Abu Dhabi would help his winter considerably.
• A decade of F2. Formula 2 is marking 10 years as F1’s leading support series with a documentary. The timing suits a grid that includes several of its graduates, among them the new champion.
• Las Vegas on 22 November. The street circuit’s long straights and cold track temperatures make it the likeliest venue for Verstappen to extend his lead in the fight for second. If he leaves Nevada more than 25 points clear, the runner-up place should be his.