UPDATEIt was discussed for hours last night whether the controversial Formula 1 race in Saudi Arabia should continue after a rocket attack on an oil depot. The sports management and organization encountered doubts among a number of drivers, but deep in the night the light still went green.
Bizarre conditions in the paddock in Jeddah, where earlier on Friday the smoke plumes could be seen from an attack on an oil depot of F1 sponsor Aramco about ten kilometers outside the circuit. The sports top had already issued a statement that, according to the Saudi authorities, it is safe to race this weekend. But some of the drivers clearly did not agree with that.
For over three hours, the twenty drivers huddled together in a small office to discuss their doubts. Lewis Hamilton sitting on a table, Max Verstappen on a chair in a corner and George Russell, as chairman of the drivers’ union GPDA, standing for a long time, looking out over his colleagues. Team bosses came in and went out again. Sporting director Ross Brawn and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali listened in for a while.
A historic evening seemed imminent. Everything was taken into account in the paddock, where the media and team personnel waited until late into the night for a possible statement. Was this the moment when the drivers would take their power and veto it? It would have fit the bill recently when the contract with the Russian GP was resolutely torn apart. A race in a conflict situation awaits in Saudi Arabia, which according to Formula 1 does not fit within the values of the sport. But no, as it turned out, when after two o’clock in the morning the door finally opened and the drivers went to bed in silence.
A new statement from Formula 1 is still pending, but despite the hours-long discussion, strangely enough, nothing has changed compared to the earlier statement with the promise of the authorities that safety comes first and that nobody has to fear on and around the circuit. “We’re just going to race,” McLaren team principal Zak Brown told this site as he left the paddock. Red Bull boss Christian Horner said the same.
So on Saturday afternoon just a third free practice, then a qualifying. Hard to imagine after the rocket attack and the nightly discussion, but the reality.
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