F1 Hot Topic | Middle East Conflict | 163 | When War Comes to the Calendar

War broke out in the Middle East on Saturday, when the US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran. Iran retaliated with missiles and drones targeting Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Jordan, countries that together host four races on the 2026 Formula 1 calendar. The Pirelli wet-weather test in Bahrain was cancelled, Gulf carriers were grounded, and F1 personnel were scrambling to reroute to Australia by any path available. By Monday afternoon, Joe Saward, one of Formula 1's most independent journalists was in a Dallas airport lounge, rerouted from France around closed Gulf airspace, after filing his JSBM newsletter analysis.In this episode, Joe walks us through what the sport is actually facing:Why Formula 1 improvises brilliantly in a crisisThe real decision-making hierarchy: who actually makes the call to cancel a Grand PrixWhy the FIA is largely irrelevant in a commercial crisisThe Russia parallel: when F1 cancelled its Russian GP contract overnight after the Ukraine invasion, it established a standard. Joe asks the uncomfortable question about what that standard means nowHis own 40-year read on covering this sport through the Gulf War, 9/11, COVID, and the 2022 Houthi strike near JeddahSabrina brings the policy lens: arguing that sport's governance framework was never designed to handle a situation where a geopolitical actor and a commercial partner are the same country, a structural problem regardless of who started what. She also drives the business and legal elements: geopolitical cancellation insurance, force majeure in hosting contracts, whether the legal framework is any clearer after Covid, and what the soft power narrative of Gulf sport hosting looks like when the countries doing the hosting are being struck by missiles.Dick, joining late from just across “the Texas border”, adds the grounding note the conversation needs: at the end of the day, this is still just the game, and Liberty Media has enough business sense not to put people in danger for a race.Check out Joe online: JSBM NewsletterGrand Prix+The Green NotebookSend us Fan MailSupport the showHave episode feedback or ideas? Drop them a line at: [email protected] 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1 on Instagram.Check out Dick's karting documentary, Power Drive Vegas.Interested in Dick's return to kart racing? Check out, Begin Again.Thanks to all who have become members of the 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1 via our “Buy me A Coffee” page. This community is growing because of you.  To become a member, click here.Like the 2 Guys, A Girl, and F1 background music? It's "An Adventure Called Life" by Score Squad. It's available for purchase at Premium Beat.  Use referral code SNSAEDUB at checkout to get 25% off your first purchase.2025 Sound Engineers: Paul Douglas and Elena Richey