Conflict in the Middle East Could Lead to Labor Issues in Formula 1

As the 2026 Formula 1 season is set to kick off this week in Melbourne, all eyes are on the Middle East as the US-Israel war on Iran threatens to disrupt the season. The first double-header in the region is set to take place in mid-April, with a race in Bahrain scheduled for April 12^th and a race in Saudi Arabia scheduled for the following week.[i] However, the growing conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran has started to affect neighboring countries, especially those in the Gulf where the US has military operations.[ii] Early Sunday morning, the US Embassy in Bahrain issued a warning to American tourists that hotels may be targeted after the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the capital city of Manama was struck by Iran.[iii] Other Gulf states like the UAE and Qatar, who are also currently scheduled to host F1 races at the end of the season, have also been struck by Iranian missiles since Sunday.[iv]

 

Formula 1 has issued a statement saying that it is “closely monitoring” the situation in the Middle East and it is working with the relevant authorities.[v] Pirelli, F1’s official tire supplier, cancelled a scheduled tire test in Bahrain due to the conflict, and several of the teams have had to take rerouted flights to this week’s race in Australia, as airports in the Middle East are typical layovers for the teams.[vi]

 

Saudi 2022 Missile Strike

This is not the first time Formula 1 has been confronted by geopolitics that threaten to disrupt race events. In 2022, in the midst of a conflict between Saudi Arabia and Houthi rebels in Yemen[vii], an Aramco oil facility only nine miles from the brand new Jeddah Corniche Circuit was struck by a missile.[viii] Smoke from the refinery was visible from the track during the Friday practice sessions, prompting the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, the labor union representing the 20 drivers, to call an emergency meeting which lasted four hours and ended at 2:30AM local time the Saturday before the race (the day qualifying usually takes place).[ix]

The GPDA said that they had received assurances from F1 executives and Saudi officials that security measures would be heightened following the incident, and that it was safe for the race to be held.[x] However, some media outlets reported that one of the reasons that the drivers eventually caved and agreed to race, after threatening a work stoppage, was that team bosses and F1 executives communicated the consequences of not racing, which included having work visas revoked and grounding team charters and drivers’ private planes.[xi]

 

F1’s Weakened Labor Union

The standoff between the drivers and F1 executives in Saudi Arabia is not the first time the GPDA has caved to pressure from team and F1 bosses. Founded in 1961, the GPDA has historically been an advocate for drivers’ safety, organizing boycotts of unsafe tracks in 1969[xii], 1970[xiii], and 1976[xiv]. A famous strike at the 1982 South African Grand Prix, where drivers barricaded themselves in a conference room of a hotel to protest clauses in their super licenses, eventually led to the disbandment of the union.[xv] The union was eventually revived in 1994 after a weekend that saw the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger[xvi], however Bernie Ecclestone, the eccentric owner of the Formula One Group during the 2000s and a former industry group leader, notoriously clamped down on any union activity that threatened his control over the sport.[xvii]

While the GPDA has been somewhat successful in advocating for safety measures, including the introduction of the “halo” following the death of Jules Bianchi after a crash at the Japanese Grand Prix in 2014, it has had little impact upon disciplinary actions and commercial decisions.[xviii] Unlike the Big 4 American sports leagues, there is no collective bargaining agreement between the GPDA and Formula 1 and the FIA, the motorsport governing body. In the US, under the National Labor Relations Act, wages, hours, and working conditions are mandatory subjects of collective bargaining[xix], meaning that any changes to the season schedule or discipline or compensation like revenue sharing is bargained for between the union and the league. The lack of a collective bargaining agreement in Formula 1 has led to the FIA imposing arbitrary fines on drivers[xx], Formula 1 imposing more commercial marketing obligations on drivers[xxi] and the teams agreeing to more races without any driver input.[xxii]

 

What Does the Future Hold

Moving forward, the fans can expect the GPDA to be more united and more vocal about working conditions despite the lack of a CBA. 28-year-old Mercedes driver George Russell, currently one of three co-directors of the GPDA alongside Williams driver Carlos Sainz, Jr and lawyer Anastasia Fowle, has been outspoken about safety concerns since his rookie season and took on the role two years later.[xxiii] Russell, who was the driving force (no pun intended) behind the four hour meeting in Saudi Arabia in 2022 after his then veteran co-director Sebastian Vettel tested positive for COVID-19, believes that the grid is more united than ever given their overnight fame due to Netflix’s Drive to Survive.

 

One issue that the drivers are all in agreement on is the lack of transparency from the FIA, specifically the FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulayem, who the drivers urged to “treat them like adults” in an open letter from November 2024.[xxiv] When Ben Sulayem responded to the drivers saying that how he runs the FIA is “none of their business”, seven-time World Champion Sir Lewis Hamilton called for the GPDA to have an actual “power” seat at the table.[xxv] Whether or not the GPDA eventually gets that seat at the table remains to be seen, but it is clear that while F1 and the FIA continue to monitor the situation in the Middle East closely, the GPDA will be monitoring F1 and the FIA, awaiting their next move.

[i] https://www.formula1.com/en/racing/2026

[ii] https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/3/1/huge-fire-at-bahrain-port-home-to-us-navys-fifth-fleet

[iii] https://abcnews.com/International/warning-americans-bahrain-after-iran-strikes-dubai-gulf/story?id=130648905

[iv] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1jk922dgjgo

[v] https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/48061667/f1-monitoring-bahrain-saudi-arabian-gps-amid-middle-east-conflict

[vi] Id.

[vii] https://www.npr.org/2022/03/26/1088975885/saudi-arabia-formula-one-f1-race-houthi-attack

[viii] https://www.npr.org/2022/03/26/1088975885/saudi-arabia-formula-one-f1-race-houthi-attack

[ix] https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/60885031

[x] Id.

[xi] https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/60880598; see also https://www.jalopnik.com/f1s-drivers-threatened-to-boycott-saudi-arabian-gp-afte-1848707409/

[xii] https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/f1-history-1969-belgian-grand-prix-never-happened/

[xiii] https://www.palatinate.org.uk/whats-all-the-fuss-about-the-gpda/

[xiv] https://www.palatinate.org.uk/whats-all-the-fuss-about-the-gpda/

[xv] https://www.palatinate.org.uk/whats-all-the-fuss-about-the-gpda/; see also https://racingnews365.com/f1s-biggest-scandals-niki-lauda-orchestrates-drivers-strike

[xvi] https://www.palatinate.org.uk/whats-all-the-fuss-about-the-gpda/

[xvii] https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-gpda-drivers-union-association-988401/1383354/

[xviii] https://www.palatinate.org.uk/whats-all-the-fuss-about-the-gpda/; see also https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-gpda-drivers-union-association-988401/1383354/

[xix] https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/the-law/bargaining-in-good-faith-with-employees-union-representative

[xx] https://www.palatinate.org.uk/whats-all-the-fuss-about-the-gpda/

[xxi] https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-gpda-drivers-union-association-988401/1383354/

[xxii] https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/formula-1-the-fia-and-all-11-teams-confirm-signing-of-2026-concorde.79MABMiuGyslBK1107y7Ig; see also https://www.planetf1.com/news/stefano-domenicali-24-races-maximum; https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/39616844/f1-limit-24-race-calendar-says-max-verstappen

[xxiii] https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/exclusive-the-sickening-moments-pushing-russell-not-to-stay-silent-over-f1-safety/10749818/

[xxiv] https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/exclusive-the-sickening-moments-pushing-russell-not-to-stay-silent-over-f1-safety/10749818/

[xxv] Id.