Inaugural Qatar contest replaces Australian race
FORMULA One bosses have announced that the sport will stage its first Qatar Grand Prix in November.
The inaugural race will take place at the Losail International Circuit, 20 miles outside of Doha, and fills the vacant slot left by the cancelled Australian Grand Prix.
F1 announced on Twitter: “F1 will race in Qatar for the first time on November 19-21. Qatar will also join the F1 calendar in a ten-year deal from 2023.”
With Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi hosting the concluding rounds of the campaign on December 5 and December 12 respectively, the news means Lewis Hamilton’s title battle with Max Verstappen will end with a hat-trick of races in the Middle East.
The sport’s chiefs will inevitably face claims of sportswashing, with human rights issues under scrutiny in the Gulf state.
Both the Mexican and Brazilian Grands Prix (November 7 and November 14) remain in line to go ahead, despite both countries being on the UK Government’s red list due to the high number of Covid-19 cases in each country.
Qatar, the venue for next winter’s football World Cup, will form the final race of a triple-header on November 21 to allow F1 bosses to get around the complications of Mexico and Brazil being on the red list, and mandatory enforced hotel quarantine for thousands of staff of the seven UK-based teams.
Despite a number of cancelled races this year – including those in Singapore, Canada, Japan and China – the sport is set to complete a record-breaking 22-round season.
Hamilton heads into the final seven rounds with a five-point advantage over rival Verstappen.
F1 president and CEO Stefano Domenicali said: “We have shown that we can continue to adapt and there is huge interest in our sport and the hope from many locations to have a grand prix.
“The huge effort from all the teams, F1 and the FIA has made it possible to deliver a 22-race season, something that is very impressive during a challenging year and something we can all be proud of.”
The next round of the series is the Turkish Grand Prix, which takes place on Sunday, October 10.