F1 Saudi Grand Prix must be dropped from the calendar after missile farce

Drivers voted not to race after a missile strike near the Saudi GP track, yet the race went ahead. Why? It’s time F1 stopped being driven by money and protected its drivers.

As Friday night rolled into Saturday morning, all 20 Formula One drivers sat in a room to discuss the possibility of not racing in Saudi Arabia. Hours earlier, as the cars had taken to the track for first practice, a missile strike had hit an oil refinery ten miles east of the street circuit that runs along the shores of the Red Sea in Jeddah. Houthi rebels from Yemen claimed responsibility.

“Is that smell of burning coming from my car?” Max Verstappen, the world champion, said as black clouds filled the sky and the smell of burning oil drifted across the track.

Stefano Domenicali, the chief executive of F1, held an emergency meeting with the team principals and drivers to discuss the situation, which delayed the second practice session by 15 minutes.

When that hour of track action was over, another crisis meeting was held.

The missile strike on the oil depot caused a lot of black smoke to be visible from the track

It started with F1 bosses, the FIA, team principals and drivers in the room, then turned into the usual Friday night drivers’ briefing before a race weekend, which then became a drivers-only meeting.

The hours passed.

TOPSHOT - Smoke and flames rise from a Saudi Aramco oil facility in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah

Lewis Hamilton had said that he did not feel comfortable racing in Saudi Arabia at its inaugural grand prix in December because of the kingdom’s human rights record, and he made clear on Friday that his view had not changed.

The missile strike hardened his stance - Hamilton did not want to go ahead with the weekend and he was by no means alone in that view.

The seven-times world champion sat on a table next to AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, who expressed similar misgivings.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz made his feelings clear, as did Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, Haas’s Kevin Magnussen and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. By the end of the meeting the decision was unanimous not to race.

Domenicali had rejoined the meeting just before midnight and stayed for an hour. Shortly after his departure, the team principals arrived. By this point, now past 1am, it is understood that the drivers were united against racing.

At 2.30am, more than four hours after the meeting had started, it was announced that the race would go ahead. What conversations happened and what pressure was applied will no doubt remain mostly unknown.

TOPSHOT - Smoke and flames rise from a Saudi Aramco oil facility in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah

The team principals who have spoken publicly said they simply gave the same assurances to the drivers that they had received from F1 and local authorities about safety.

As qualifying got under way on Saturday, the track action distracted from the fire still smouldering in the distance - but only momentarily. Hamilton’s shock early exit in the first part of qualifying raised the question about whether he had been distracted by off-track events. He declined to comment on whether or not he had been a leading figure in the objections to racing and denied he had been preoccupied, but tellingly, when asked to sum up his thoughts, he replied: “I’m looking forward to going home.”

The assurances given to the teams apparently included the fact that Saudi Arabia has a strong anti-missile system in place; another was that the Yemeni Houthi rebels target infrastructure and not civilians.

MONEY TALKS

But it yet again raises questions of F1 and its apparent desire to put money first. The $87 million-a-year race fee that Saudi Arabia pays is one of the most lucrative in the sport and with the teams enjoying a large revenue share, there is little doubt that they also benefit.

However, Liberty Media, which owns the sport, made clear when it took charge at the start of 2017 that it wanted the drivers to be the stars of the sport and those drivers are now using that status to their advantage.

The four-hour meeting of the drivers, while it ended with a decision to continue with the race weekend, sent a clear picture to the bosses and the watching world that they were not comfortable about remaining in Saudi Arabia.

After qualifying, some drivers made it plain that they believe F1 needs to review its position in Saudi Arabia after the weekend’s events. “I don’t want to go too much into details on this subject now, but it’s definitely a discussion that we should have after this race, once everything calms down,” Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc said.

His team-mate, Sainz, felt the same way: “I agree. There will need to be discussions after this race. Because clearly what has happened in the last 24 hours is definitely a point of discussion and considerations that we need to take into the future.”

Valtteri Bottas, the former Mercedes driver now at Alfa Romeo, said promises had been given to look into the future of the race.

“It’s a unique grand prix and at least Formula One promised us to reconsider all the events for the future, including this one, to make sure that we go to the right places so that they can guarantee our safety 100 per cent every time,” he said.

WILL THE RACE CONTINUE?

After the event, F1 is expected to give a more detailed picture of what sort of security measures were in place, with discussions continuing with the local authorities about how much of the information can be shared with the public.

The war in Yemen is now in its eighth year so F1 would have known about it when it signed the lucrative deal in 2020. Under the present contract, F1 will race in Jeddah until 2025 before moving to a purpose-built circuit in Qiddiya, near Riyadh.

Does F1 really want to stage a race in a place that is under regular attack from missiles? Before Friday’s incident, a missile had fallen in Jeddah less than a week earlier.

Then there is the appalling human rights record, with executions in March alone nearing 100, and reports of minors being on death row.

The track is another issue. It is marketed as the fastest street circuit but that speed comes with unnecessary dangers, as experienced by Mick Schumacher when he crashed his Haas into a wall at 170mph during qualifying and had to be flown to hospital. Thankfully he is OK but he did not race. More attention would be paid to this if not for all the off-track drama.

Serious and urgent questions need to be asked by F1, about whether Saudi Arabia should be on the calendar. It should consider more than just the bottom line.

F1 STAFFER SACKED FOR SICK HAMILTON POST

An F1 marshal who “hoped” Lewis Hamilton would suffer a fiery crash similar to Romain Grosjean has been forced to quit working at the Saudi Arabian GP.

It is a staggering development which will only heighten tensions surrounding this race, which has been plunged into doubt by a missile attack on a nearby fuel depot.

Posting on Twitter as @Heem4U, he replied to an image of Hamilton and wrote in Arabic: “I hope he has an accident like Roman (sic) accident in Bahrain.”

Grosjean suffered a huge smash in 2020 in Bahrain where his Haas caught fire and was lucky to be pulled from the wreckage.

SunSport flagged the issue to the FIA and the organisers, who say the man “has been removed from his post”.

Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes has been the subject of some sick social posts

Images from the Twitter account showed videos of an AlphaTauri pitstop and a photo of the F1 trophies.

In another message in Arabic outlining Hamilton’s desire to help change Saudi Arabia’s human rights, the same account replies: “The Saudi authorities do not respond to dogs.

“If a person saw him, they would have responded to him.”

He has since apologised to Hamilton and wrote again in Arabic on Twitter, and announced he was leaving the race.

He wrote: “I offer my apologies to the Saudi Motorsports and Motorcycle Federation.

“And for driver Lewis Hamilton.

“On my previous tweet, I announced (sic) my withdrawal from the ring [race].”

The race in Saudi is still set to proceed as planned despite a terror attack taking place less than 11kms from the circuit.

Hamilton has endured a torrid time this weekend after only managing to qualify 14th for the race.

Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes leaves the paddock

It is the first time in 2017 that the seven-time champion failed to make it through the first round of qualifying.

Hamilton slammed his car as “undriveable” after the session saying the team has some serious issues to address.

“Of course, I am very disappointed,” said Hamilton, who apologised to the team. “We have a serious issue - something in the set-up - and it was looking good in P3 (practice) so I tried to progress further in a similar direction, but maybe went too far.

“The car was so nervous it was undriveable.”

Hamilton added that he was prepared to break regulations in order to make some changes to the car and accept starting from pitlane.

“Maybe I’ll start from the pit lane and change the car again to make sure it doesn’t handle the way it just did today,” he said.

“For sure, there is something wrong, but I don’t know what it is so I can’t comment on it. I just had no rear end. It was just too loose.

“I just apologise to my team because everyone works so hard and when you don’t deliver for them it’s just gutting.”

New teammate and british compatriot George Russell will start in sixth but also lamented the car’s poor performance.

“For the team, it’s not a good day. We don’t have a handle on the car at the moment and it has been inconsistent. We are fighting for such a small window (of performance).”