Utter madness. Even if you accept the race itself is unlikely to be targeted, the global attention on the event means a strike against other targets in the region will get much greater exposure than it normally would. So the F1 circus is putting Saudi citizens and businesses at risk by being there. If there's a similar strike tomorrow, what happens? Even the idea that team personnel would be prevented from leaving the country should be enough to make sure Saudi Arabia is blacklisted from hosting F1 events for as long as MBS is in charge. I'm sure there's a big financial hit to F1 from that, but that's a secondary concern.
I started writing a response that became too political. I don't like the way Liberty are running this sport. I will leave it at that.
That fight between Iran & Saudi has been going on for almost a decade, but SA likes to keep a lid on internal problems and pretend there's nothing happening.
Among the considerations, BBC Sport has been told, was the potential impact calling off the race might have - whether there could be delays in personnel or freight leaving the country, for example.
It's been like this a long time. Most of this crap started under Bernie. But if they have been threatened with not being able to leave the country if they don't race, then I hope this is the kick up the backside that Liberty need to clean up F1. And if not, I hope the teams find some contractual breach that allows them to walk away and ditch Liberty, after basically having a gun put to their heads to perform. I would bloody love it if all the drivers did one lap in formation on Sunday, then all retired their cars.
I love this line that keeps getting touted about the situation, and it seems to be something like "The information we received was convincing" without specifying anything about what that means. Also... Why the hell do we have government officials at a drivers meeting. A drivers meeting!!!
Could we not just put the money away and go racing at Estoril and Magny Cours instead of these ****ty regimes?
