The first round of the 2026 Gran Turismo World Series esports championship, set to take place in Abu Dhabi at the end of this month, has been cancelled due to safety concerns as military action in and around Iran continue to have wider regional consequences.
Polyphony Digital chief Kazunori Yamauchi and the Abu Dhabi government via the executive director of strategic affairs at the Department of Culture and Tourism, His Excellency Saeed Al-Fazari, originally announced the event in a joint-presentation at the 2025 Gran Turismo World Series finals in Fukuoka last December. The partnership also saw the launch of the Yas Marina circuit, Abu Dhabi’s Formula 1 venue, within Gran Turismo 7, with it being made available to players in a game update shortly thereafter.
While breaking new ground for the GTWS, which has never visited the Middle East, it’s not an unknown region to the game series. Abu Dhabi hosted the final of the gamer-to-racer GT Academy event in 2015, with several locations hosting challenges and Yas Marina the venue of the final race. Dedicated Middle East versions of the competition saw Qatari driver Salman Al Khater and Saudi Arabia’s Ahmed bin Khanen crowned in 2013 and 2014 respectively. The 2013 event also included the only ever female finalist at a regional final, Faiza Al Kindi of the United Arab Emirates.
This year’s event would have seen the GTWS visit the region for the first time, with the Abu Dhabi government keen to host as part of its initiative to grow the emirate’s standing as an esports hub, and Yamauchi noting his surprise at the cross-gender nature of automotive enthusiasm in the UAE. Tickets had been on sale for the event at the boat-shaped Space42 Arena venue, in Al Rahah, since late-December.
All of that planning though has gone out of the window, with Polyphony Digital today announcing that the event has been cancelled just three weeks before it was due to take place, citing safety concerns.
It’s as a consequence of an escalating conflict that began just last week with a surprise US-Israeli strike on Iran that killed the Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei among other effects. Retaliatory action from Iran has resulted in damage and casualties across the region, with Abu Dhabi itself among the territories targeted by missile and drone strikes. The local Zayed International Airport, which would be used by players and staff for the event, was struck by debris from a drone interception by defence systems.
Unsurprisingly, major airlines have cancelled flights to and from the region and Abu Dhabi itself, while the airspace over the UAE may also be disrupted by temporary closures to civilian air traffic. With no end in sight for the conflict it’s likely that this will run through the planned GTWS event and make the logistics of attending somewhat tricky.
This is only the second time in the history of the GT World Series that an event has been cancelled, with the last being the Nurburgring round of what was then the Gran Turismo World Tour for GT Sport in 2020. That was, of course, a result of the burgeoning pandemic and its own travel restrictions, and saw the event as a whole move to an online championship across 2020 and 2021, before resuming live events in mid-2022.
It’s likely that the planned second round, in Milan this May, will now move up to become the first round, with the venue for what would have been the third round in October yet to be announced. Tokyo will host the final in December, while it remains to be seen if PD will rearrange the Abu Dhabi event before that, or whether it remains at the same venue.