The last time Formula 1 was due to race at Imola, the water came first. Deadly floods swept across Emilia-Romagna in May 2023, the grand prix was cancelled outright, and the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari does not appear on the 2026 schedule at all. Now, improbably, an Imola F1 return is back in the conversation — and not as a filler date in the spring. The circuit is being talked about as a possible venue for the race that decides this year’s world championship.
According to a report by Franco Nugnes for Motorsport.com, Formula 1 has given itself until 15 September to determine whether the final two rounds of the season — Qatar on 29 November and Abu Dhabi on 6 December — can go ahead as scheduled. If the Qatar date has to move, Imola is one of the options on the table.
Why an Imola F1 return is even being discussed
The problem is not sporting, and it is not commercial. Motorsport.com reports that continuing instability involving Iran, Israel and the United States has cast doubt over both Gulf rounds, with the question of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz still unresolved. Nothing has been cancelled. But a grand prix is a logistics operation measured in months rather than weeks, and the organisational window is closing.
Hence the deadline. Mid-September sits neatly between the Spanish Grand Prix at Madrid and the trip to Azerbaijan — the last comfortable moment at which Stefano Domenicali’s office can commit freight, staff and broadcast infrastructure to one hemisphere or the other.
The Sepang precedent
If relocating a grand prix sounds far-fetched, F1 has already done it once this season. The 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix is set to be run not in Bahrain but at Sepang in Malaysia on 4 October — a race that keeps its name and its promoter while changing continent. It is the same principle now being applied to Imola, and it follows the months of uncertainty this site covered when Domenicali’s deadline turned Bahrain into a test of F1’s calendar.
The financial architecture reportedly works the same way. Qatar would provide the budget and handle the promotional campaign, while the running of the event would be entrusted to the ACI and Formula Imola, the company that operates the circuit. Imola, in other words, would not be buying a race back. It would be hosting someone else’s.
A title decider in Ferrari’s backyard
The sporting consequence is the part that should interest anyone still watching the championship. Kimi Antonelli leads the drivers’ standings for Mercedes, who have won eight of the season’s 12 races so far and head the constructors’ table. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are chasing in the Ferraris, and Lando Norris took the most recent win at Zandvoort.
Move the finale to Imola and that fight lands a short drive from Maranello, in front of a grandstand that will not be neutral. A championship settled at the Enzo e Dino Ferrari would be an accident of geopolitics rather than a piece of scheduling romance — but it would be an extraordinary one, particularly if a Ferrari is still in contention on the final Sunday.
None of it is confirmed. Qatar and Abu Dhabi may yet run exactly as printed, and F1 has every commercial reason to want them to. But the fact that a circuit dropped from the calendar is now being weighed as a title-deciding venue says something about how provisional the back end of the 2026 season has become. The answer is due by 15 September.
