This second weekend of racing of the F1 world championship has yet to decide the winner of the Grand Prix scheduled for tomorrow at 19:00 Italian time, but it has already made history in the negative. In fact, during the first free practice session, a missile attack was recorded less than 20 km from the Jeddah circuit, an offensive unleashed by the Houthi militias, the movement supported by Iran that controls part of Yemen. This attack brought to the fore a forgotten war, which began seven years ago, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths by starving the Yemeni population.
Liberty Media through the CEO Stefano Domenicali and the president of the FIA Mohammed Ben Sulayem tried to reassure the paddock by underlining that the continuous contacts with the Saudi authorities have provided sufficient guarantees in terms of safety. The teams, gathered after the second free practice session, unanimously gave the go ahead to continue the Grand Prix, but the drivers were prevented from holding official sessions together with the media present on the circuit. This first alarm bell of a situation that has very little to do with normality has turned into a deafening silence when the meeting between the drivers following that of the team principals has turned into a interminable meeting lasted over three hours and ended at three in the morning.
At first Stefano Domenicali and Ross Brawn joined the pilots, then leaving the meeting with tense faces. The drivers then received the ‘visit’ of a virtually complete delegation of team principals, clearly not satisfied with the situation that arose. The team managers and Grand Prix Driver Association spokesman George Russell were then directed by Stefano Domenicali and after this last summit some team principals including Christian Horner and Zak Brown confirmed that the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix continues as per program. However, disturbing rumors emerge about what convinced the pilots not to boycott the event. As reported by the BBC were to weigh the possible consequences of a boycott of the Grand Prix by the drivers. In practice, not rushing would lead to considerable difficulties in leaving Saudi Arabia. The Finnish press points out that the drivers have been categorically forbidden to talk about the war surrounding the Grand Prix. An unedifying situation to put it mildly. Barring twists and turns, today we will see the third free practice session and Qualifying, tomorrow we will race the Grand Prix. And this seems to have been the only solution presented to the pilots to be able to then freely leave Saudi Arabia.
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