Formula One’s Australian Grand Prix hit by travel chaos amid Middle East crisis
As many as one thousand members of the Formula One circus have been forced into last-minute travel changes to get to Melbourne’s opening round in the wake of the escalating crisis in the Middle East, and some are set to miss the start of the season entirely,However, a larger logistical headache has been narrowly avoided, after the cars and supporting equipment were already shipped from last month’s testing in Bahrain – one of the countries drawn into the conflict – prior to this week’s widespread aviation disruptions,Travis Auld, chief executive of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, told Channel Nine on Monday the vehicles were already sitting on the main straight at Albert Park in containers, ready to be put into the garages ahead of the Formula One race weekend, which begins with practice on Friday,He added, however, that many staff have had to make new travel arrangements to avoid international airport hubs in places such as Qatar and the UAE which have been hit by Iranian missiles,“You’re talking about teams, drivers, Formula One personnel, I’m guessing there’d be close to a thousand people that would have already booked their flights and would be landing somewhere between today, tomorrow, Wednesday – they had to all be changed.
“But a lot of people around the world are doing the same thing and so you’re competing obviously with that increase in demand, but they’ve been able to sort it out.”As a globetrotting sport with close ties to locations and capital in the Middle East, Formula One has been heavily affected by the the events of recent days.Round four remains scheduled in Bahrain in early April and round five in Saudi Arabia a week later, but Formula One officials said they were monitoring the situation.Tyre manufacturer Pirelli cancelled wet weather testing in Bahrain due to the conflict but staff were still stranded in Manama, one of the sites targeting by a drone attack.Some members of the McLaren and Mercedes teams were reportedly also still in Bahrain, including Mercedes new third driver Frederik Vesti who posted two days ago from the track.
This article includes content provided by Instagram.We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies.To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'.Auld said fans can expect to see all of Formula One’s familiar faces in Melbourne, even if he suggested not everyone will make it.“The drivers will be here, the engineers will be here, the team principals will be here, they’re the ones that have been prioritised [for travel] and so you won’t see any sort of surprise drivers under a helmet,” he said.
“Some of the other ones [staff] are coming out now, probably you could continue the race without them, but luckily we’ve been able to get everyone that needs to be here, here.”The president of Formula 1’s governing body, the FIA, meanwhile, has said it will prioritise “safety and wellbeing” as it decides what to do about upcoming races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in the middle of April.The FIA statement also mentioned the World Endurance Championship, a leading sportscar series that opens its season in Qatar at the end of this month.“We are in close contact with our member clubs, championship promoters, teams and colleagues on the ground as we monitor developments carefully and responsibly,” the FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, posted on Instagram on Monday.“Safety and wellbeing will guide our decisions as we assess the forthcoming events scheduled there for the FIA World Endurance Championship and the FIA Formula One World Championship.
Our organization is built on unity and shared purpose.That unity matters now more than ever.”Ben Sulayem, who is from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, said “we are deeply saddened by the loss of life and stand with the families and communities impacted,” adding that the FIA hopes for “calm, safety and a swift return to stability.”
Men almost twice as likely as women to earn high salaries in ‘reality check’ on Australia’s gender pay gap
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Maritime insurers cancel war risk cover in Gulf as Iran conflict disrupts shipping
Leading maritime insurers have cancelled war risk cover for vessels operating in the Gulf as the escalating Iran conflict disrupted shipping and sent some freight costs surging.At least 150 vessels including oil and liquefied natural gas tankers have dropped anchor in the strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters, and at least three tankers were damaged and one seafarer killed over the weekend.The vital shipping route, through which about 20% of the world’s oil supplies and 20% of seaborne gas tankers pass, is effectively closed after the US and Israel began intense airstrikes on Iran on Saturday.Several leading mutual marine insurers, including Norway’s Gard and Skuld, the UK’s NorthStandard and the London P&I Club, and the New York-based American Club, said they were cancelling war risk cover for ships operating in the region.This is likely to further dissuade shipowners from traversing the Gulf
US military reportedly used Claude in Iran strikes despite Trump’s ban
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Datacentre developers face calls to disclose effect on UK’s net emissions
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Lord Allen to become latest casualty of horse racing’s intractable politics
The wait continues for confirmation that Charles Allen’s brief, troubled – and ultimately ineffectual – tenure as chair of the British Horseracing Authority is over. In racing terms, however, he is nine-tenths out of the saddle, his backside inching towards the turf and gravity is about to take over.Even in the thankless and intractable world of racing politics, few stars have waned as rapidly as that of Lord Allen of Kensington, a former businessman and senior broadcasting executive who arrived in September at the BHA promising to restructure the sport’s governance and, in the words of his day-one mission statement, “develop British racing into a modern commercial and cultural powerhouse”.There were hints of the struggles ahead even before the new chair’s seat was warm. Allen’s appointment had been announced in November 2024, with an intended start date of 1 June, but his arrival was delayed as he delved deeper into the tangled web of factional interests he had been hired to unite, and sought assurances that his plan for a fully independent BHA board of directors would be implemented
AFL 2026 predicted ladder part two: history suggests Geelong may struggle
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