"No War?"

“No war,” “We Race as One,” empty gestures shown by F1 in the past two years.

After 4 hours and 20 minutes of debate between drivers, team principals and race officials, the race on Sunday is still on. 22 km away from the circuit in Jeddah, a missile struck an Aramco petroleum facility during the FP1. Smoke was seen in the background of the practice session. The second Free Practice was delayed by 15 minutes because there was a meeting with drivers and team members getting an update on the situation before the session began. After FP2, the drivers and team principals attended another meeting. At first, it seemed there was no problem when the F1 CEO assured that all teams were in agreement for the race to go ahead as planned. Then word was spread that after the team principals left that the drivers stayed and continued debate. After over four hours passed, there seemed to have been a stalemate and the race would continue anyways. As the Grand Prix Driver Association (GPDA) representative present, George Russell, advocated for other drivers’ since last year, he reportedly attended a further meeting after the four hour meeting.

Worrying seems sensible since last year during the Formula E race in Diriyah, there was a similar situation. Missiles were intercepted and blew up in the sky above the track. The worries of going to Saudi Arabia for all motorsports including Formula E, Extreme E and now Formula 1 have increased since that event. Now, controversy continues.

Wednesday there was a strike by the track, before the teams arrived at the paddock. The FIA deemed it safe to continue with race plans then. Now, another missile strike, even closer to the track and the officials still think it’s safe to continue.

Hopefully the drivers will be inspired by the 1982 South African Grand Prix, where the drivers refused to race due to a disagreement about the super license rules. Since then, the 12 car rule has been put in place requiring 12 cars to start a race. Realistically, I don’t see 8 drivers protesting and not showing up for the race. There has been a holding pattern for air travel above Jeddah, so leaving the city would be difficult anyways. In a recent statement from BBC, the teams were warned of leaving because of the local rules. Christian Horner’s statement that “we’ll be racing” shows that some of the teams will for sure be racing Sunday.

Now we wait and see who shows up for FP3 tomorrow.