Today is day twenty-six of Formula 1's thirty-five-day dark stretch between the Japanese Grand Prix on March 27-29 and the Miami Grand Prix on May 1-3. The Bahrain Grand Prix (April 10-12) and the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix (April 17-19) were cancelled on March 14, citing "the ongoing situation in the Middle East region." [1] F1 lost two race weekends and roughly £100 million in combined commercial revenue by the BBC's estimate. The 2026 calendar dropped from twenty-four races to twenty-two. The paper's Monday piece tracked the weekend that did not happen.

MotoGP took a different path and produced a different calendar. On March 15, one day after F1's cancellation, the MotoGP Sport and Entertainment Group confirmed that the Qatar Grand Prix — also originally scheduled for April, at Lusail International Circuit — would be postponed rather than cancelled, and would now run November 6-8, forming a new Phillip Island–Sepang–Lusail triple header. [2] The Portuguese Grand Prix at Portimão, originally November 13-15, shifts to November 20-22. The Spanish season finale at Valencia moves to November 27-29. All other 2026 rounds remain in place. [3]

Two federations, the same war, two responses. F1 took the revenue hit and accepted a two-race deficit on the commercial year. MotoGP took a logistics hit — an unusual late-season triple header, a finale pushed into the last weekend of November — and preserved race count. CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta's public framing was "minimal disruption to the wider MotoGP schedule." [2] The operational question the paper's motorsport thread is now following is whether F1 uses the Abu Dhabi season finale as a make-up slot for Jeddah, as Ziggo Sport's Robert Doornbos reported Monday was under discussion, or whether the 22-race calendar stands as the commercial reality of 2026. The 2027 calendars for both series are due within weeks. What they look like will tell readers which federation is planning around the war and which is still planning around 2025.

-- AMARA OKONKWO, Lagos