Doha hotels used by the F1 and MotoGP paddock named on Iran-linked target list
A list of possible retaliation targets shared by Iran's state-affiliated Fars news agency includes five Doha hotels, some used by F1 and MotoGP teams. MotoGP races in Qatar this weekend, and F1 is due later this month.
A list of possible retaliation targets shared by Iran’s state-affiliated Fars news agency includes hotels in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that are used by F1 and MotoGP teams on race weekends.
It lands days before MotoGP races at Lusail, and just over three weeks before F1 is due at the same track.
What’s on the list
The list, called “Zero Hour”, appeared as a 24-second video on Fars’s website on the morning of 31 October, and later on its Arabic-language X account, where it has been viewed more than 1.7 million times. The caption calls it an update to Iran’s “bank of targets”, to be hit if the US or Israel attacks Iran again. Fars itself credits the maps to “media linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
The video covers eight countries: Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Jordan. Along with critical infrastructure like ports, airports and power stations, it includes civilian places like hotels and shopping centres.
The post on Fars’s Arabic X account. Translation: “Update of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s target bank. These are the targets that will be hit if America or the Zionist entity [Israel] launches aggression against Iran again.”
The Qatar section names five hotels in Doha:
- Sheraton Grand Doha Resort & Convention Hotel
- W Doha
- Marriott Marquis City Center Doha
- JW Marriott Marquis City Center Doha
- Sharq Village & Spa, a Ritz-Carlton hotel
Some of them are hotels the paddock uses during the Qatar races. In the UAE, the W Abu Dhabi, which sits over the Yas Marina track and houses much of the F1 paddock, is reportedly not on the list.
It’s a threat video, not a confirmed plan, and being on it doesn’t mean a hotel faces an immediate threat. So far, F1, the FIA and MotoGP haven’t commented on it.
Why now: Trump, the midterms and Israel’s election
The list comes at a tense moment. The US voted in its midterm elections on Tuesday, and there have been reports that Donald Trump could resume strikes on Iran as soon as the day after. Trump has played that down. Asked whether he would hit Iran again once voting ended, he said “No”, adding: “One way or the other, we will do something, but there is no rush.”
It hasn’t been quiet in the meantime. On Monday, US forces carried out what officials called “limited defensive strikes” on Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard fired on a US aircraft.
Israel is in limbo too. Its election on 27 October left Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud as the biggest party, but his bloc short of a majority, and coalition talks are still going. Netanyahu has reportedly been pushing Trump for another wave of strikes after the midterms.
And in the middle of it all is Qatar, which hosts both the MotoGP and F1 races. It’s mediating talks between the US and Iran on an interim deal.
MotoGP is still going this weekend
MotoGP’s Qatar Grand Prix runs from 6 to 8 November. The series says it has consulted the Qatari authorities, the circuit, embassies and independent security advisers, and that the race goes ahead.
But it will run without Yamaha. The Japanese manufacturer has pulled out of the Qatar round, keeping all four of its bikes at home because of company-wide travel restrictions over the war. It’s the first team in any series to refuse a race in the region.
Fabio Quartararo on the Yamaha at the 2026 Malaysian MotoGP, the team’s last race before Qatar. Photo: Wan Mikhail Roslan/NurPhoto
Read more: Yamaha pull out of MotoGP’s Qatar race. Will F1 still go to Qatar and Abu Dhabi?
The riders aren’t convinced either. Jack Miller says 19 of them signed a letter questioning the decision to race. Marc Márquez plans to fly in on Thursday, one day before practice, to keep his time in Qatar as short as possible.
What it means for F1
F1 is due at Lusail for the Qatar Grand Prix from 27 to 29 November, then at Yas Marina for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from 4 to 6 December. Both are still on the calendar.
But the decision isn’t final. Formula One Management will look at it again after the US midterm elections, and teams have reportedly been given until 10 November to approve a backup race at Imola.
The podium at the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix, moved to Sepang in Malaysia because of the war. Photo: Wan Mikhail Roslan/NurPhoto
The war has already cost F1 two races this year: the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was cancelled, and the Bahrain Grand Prix moved to Sepang.
Max Verstappen, who said in September that F1 “shouldn’t go”, is waiting to see what happens. “Of course, it mainly depends on what kind of guarantees they can give us and what happens in the coming weeks,” he said.
Our view
A list like this doesn’t change the risk overnight, and nothing on it is a confirmed plan. But it makes F1’s job harder. Asking hundreds of team members to stay in hotels named on a target list is a tough sell, even with security guarantees. MotoGP’s weekend in Qatar is now the real test. If it passes quietly, F1 will likely stick to its calendar. If it doesn’t, expect the Imola backup to come back very quickly.
