So this is a bit late, sorry about that, but lucky for me, I’m not a 80s pizza company promising you hot takes within 30 minutes or you get some free garlic bread. Instead, I’m happy to offer you your money back. 

This was going to be about George Russell’s meltdown in Spa after a lap 1 crash that wasn’t really his fault, and his radio message expressing his dissatisfaction to his Mercedes team. My strong belief is that Russell has been given something of a free pass here, and had a few other drivers gone after their team in that way, F1 fans and media would be using “spoiled”, “uncontrollable” and a couple of other adjectives.

It turns out Mercedes have conveniently found a coding error deep in Russell’s engine software. I’m not a coding expert, but leaving the “screw_GR63” parameter to yes is always going to cause trouble.

Here’s the meltdown if you haven’t read it yet.

The other part is what it means for the Championship. As we head to Hungary and the halfway point in the season, Russell is 50 points down on Kimi Antonelli, who cruised to his sixth victory of the season. Winning six races and not winning the Drivers’ Championship has happened 14 times in F1, and it’s another F1 record held by Lewis Hamilton, who won 10 races in 2016, only to lose the title to Nico Rosberg.

Well, I say Hungary is at the halfway point, but we might already be past it. I write this with no more inside knowledge than you have, but you also have access to the news, and you can see that it is not a good situation. You are not reading this for deep geopolitical expertise, but F1 has three races that in my view, are at serious risk.

Those being the season-enders in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, and I also think Baku might also be being looked at. Bearing in mind we’ve already lost two races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia this year, and F1 has some choices to make, and it has to make them quickly.

There were rumours of hope, whatever that is, with reports of Bahrain coming back onto the calendar for a race on October 4¹. But those rumours died on the vine as the attacks in Iran escalated.

Azerbaijan shares a land border with Iran, and even if the US president was visited by three ghosts overnight, things are unlikely to change ahead of September 26, with the Grand Prix on a Saturday to accommodate one of the country’s national days. It’s also a street track, which makes things more difficult, and so if you are the government, or the FIA, you have a simple question to answer: Can you guarantee the safety of people working and attending?

If not, how much risk is acceptable? Is it less than 10 miles, as the attack in Saudi Arabia took place during a practice session? Formula 1 has shown no issues about where it races as long as the requisite fees are paid, but other than Yuki Tsunoda in Vegas, I can’t think of many other incidents. Team staff being robbed in Brazil is another that comes to mind.

Then there is Qatar and Abu Dhabi. The season-ending double header also hosts Formula 2’s finale and often gives Formula 3 stars a chance to step up. The F1 title may well be decided by then, but F2 continues to be a race weekend’s best-kept secret, so is it possible that these races are abandoned, or more likely replaced.

When F1 sells its media rights to broadcasters, they sell a certain volume of race weekends. Reports say the lowest that magic number can be is 21 or 22. As we’ve already lost two, if those reports are true, then it looks like we’re in replacement race territory. And this is where you can go full fantasy race promoter.

However, if you say a double header in Singapore is the answer, as has been reported, you have already lost the game. Let’s show a bit of ambition! Malaysia! A much-loved track comparatively up the road could step in. But where else? November rules out the likes of Silverstone, given track temperatures ranging from Baltic to Are You Kidding?! Freight might rule out European races, with the likes of Imola and Istanbul being named, but Portugal might be a credible option and make a return to F1 a little earlier than it previously planned. 

This season might have some twists in it yet, but at the start of the year when the covers were coming off these new machines, not many people saw this conflict coming. This isn’t just a problem for this year, but for at least one more. F1’s 2026 calendar was announced in June 2025. F1 can’t make decisions months into the future about the season opener, which is due back in Bahrain as the end of Ramadan moves back to early March.

It can’t talk about a return to the Corniche, or the Lusail pool table, or the year ending in Abu Dhabi as it has done for a long time now. In the grand scheme of things, a sport arranging its calendar according to world events isn’t really a thing. F1 moves on. It always has. But combined, that’s probably nine figures worth of race fees the sport has to make up.

The same goes for other series. Formula E wants to debut its Gen4 era in Jeddah in mid-December. WEC has scheduled races in Qatar and Bahrain, with likely shorter, 6-hour races in Barcelona and Monza rumoured to replace them. MotoGP slotted Qatar in on its way back west after Malaysia. Every single one of the decision makers behind these series has to answer just one question.

Can you keep everyone safe?

All the headlines in 2026 are video game references.

What game doesn’t have a level select? Here’s the one from Sonic 3, which when I was younger I could never get to work.

Still wouldn’t have got past the barrel of doom.