F1 grands prix cancellations after Bahrain and Saudi Arabia decisions

F1 and the FIA have now officially confirmed that, as expected, the 2026 Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix will be cancelled.

Owing to the Middle East crisis sparked by the United States and Israel attacking Iran, and its subsequent retaliation, it has been decided that the races in Sakhir and Jeddah on the weekends of April 10-12 and April 17-19 cannot go ahead as planned.

Although the statements said that the races "cannot go ahead in April", perhaps leaving some wriggle room for a slot later in the year, there is no space in the calendar for either race, neither of which will be replaced, meaning F1 drops to a 22-race calendar for the 2026 season. 

But it is not the first time that a world championship grand prix has been cancelled, so after 1,151 of them following the 2026 Chinese GP, RacingNews365 takes a look at the 32 grands prix which never were. 

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Cancelled F1 grands prix

The first cancellations came in 1955 in reaction to the Le Mans 24 Hours disaster, with the French, Swiss, Spanish, and German GPs all being called off as the season was shortened drastically. 

A couple of years later, in response to the Suez Crisis, prompted by the British and French governments trying to seize control of the route after the Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser had nationalised the country's oil company, he told the British and French to leave.

Petrol and oil prices skyrocketed, with the meagre prize money offerings prompting the cancellation of the Dutch and Belgian GPs. A substitute race was added to the calendar at Pescara, which has the honour of being the longest circuit ever used in the world championship at 15.8 miles a lap.

British Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden was also forced to resign over the crisis.

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COVID hits

The Belgian GPs of 1969 and 1985 were also cancelled, with the former being due to a driver boycott over safety concerns, whilst in the latter, the track began to break up during practice and qualifying, having only recently been relaid.

The race was cancelled, but eventually run in September of that year, as Ayrton Senna claimed the second win of his career.

The next cancellation would not be until 2011, when, due to the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East, the Bahrain GP was called off. 

This would be the final cancellation until COVID-19 struck. 

Shanghai's Chinese GP would be cancelled between 2020-2023, returning in 2024, with the Australian, Vietnamese, Dutch, Monaco, Azerbaijan, Canadian, French, Singapore, Japanese, United States, Mexico City, and Brazilian GPs all falling away in 2020.

Australia, Canada, Singapore, and Japan would also miss 2021 before returning in 2022.

Before the 2026 Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GPs were called off, the last F1 race to be cancelled was the 2023 Emilia Romagna GP at Imola.

Due to intense flooding in the region, F1 had no choice but to cancel the grand prix to avoid diverting vital emergency resources from the local area to support the race.