Formula 1 confirmed on Saturday that April’s races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have be canceled due to the war in Iran.
The conflict had already placed the rounds on April 12 and April 19 in major doubt and they were both officially canceled ahead of Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix.
It leaves F1 with a five-week void between the third round of the new season in Japan on March 29 and the Miami Grand Prix on May 3, and looks likely to reduce the number of races this season from 24 to 22 — although it was not entirely ruled out that the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia events could be run at another stage this year.
A statement from F1 read: “It has been confirmed today that, after careful evaluations, due to the…