The F1 series joined the common front in Russia boycotts, but it cannot stop pleasing Saudi Arabia. No wonder the series has been accused of double standards again, writes Urheilun Mika Halonen.
Valtteri Bottas didn’t say much on Saturday after the time trials, but still much more than anyone over the weekend before.
– Now, of course, we have to consider what kind of places the race will take place in the future. However, not everything is stable here, it may not be a nice thing, Bottas said in an interview with Viaplay.
Yeah Al that sounds pretty crap to me, Looks like it aint for me either.
This was the reality on Friday in Saudi Arabia when the reigning world champion Max Verstappen asked during the exercises where the smell of smoke came from. There was a missile strike during the exercises about ten kilometers from the street in Jeddah.
After all this, a grueling collision was seen in Saturday’s time when the Haas stable Mick Schumacherin the car left the glove. Jeddah’s high-speed and cramped “concrete chutes” containing several “dark bends” have been accused of being life-threatening.
It’s special that the F1 series, which has invested in safety, has taken its race to such a track.
The threats came true
The F1 season of 2021 culminated in the wrinkling of three races, nicknamed the “human rights tour”: Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The 2022 season started in Bahrain and will continue this weekend in Saudi Arabia.
Similar problems can be found in all the countries mentioned above, including because of the Kafala system. The system includes a number of oppressive disadvantages for migrant workers, such as the fact that a worker cannot leave the country or change jobs without the permission of the employer.
– All independent media have been banned since 2017 and all opposition groups have been disbanded … There are currently 26 people on death row … Authorities have arrested, prosecuted and harassed human rights defenders, journalists and opposition leaders, including the situation in Bahrain. Human Rights Watch website (go to another service).
These are no obstacles to F1 series management allowing countries to do their sportswear. Another good example of sports laundering is when the traditional English football club Newcastle was taken over by a Saudi state investment group last year.
– It’s soft power. They seek to create a positive image of themselves and influence how people perceive these states and their policies: that people associate them above all with sport rather than being seen as violating human rights, described a professor of sports laundering in the Middle East. Hannu Juusola last fall.
The leader of the investor group that acquired Newcastle is the Crown Prince and Minister of Defense of Saudi Arabia Muhammad bin Salmanaccused a journalist in 2018 Jamal Khashoggin ordering murder.
On Friday, March 25, 2022, Stinky then hit the fan properly during a human rights tour. Except that according to the leading figures in the F1 series, nothing happened.
At the same time as F1 cars were racing the first drills on the street track in Jeddah, a huge cloud of smoke rose in the background. The warehouse of oil refiner Saudi Aramco had been hit by a missile strike by a Yuten huthi guerrilla group. The production facility is located approximately ten kilometers from the F1 line.
After a quick meeting, the second exercises started 15 minutes late. When the F1 executives came from their meeting, a Viaplay reporter tried Mervi Kallio comments from F1’s Italian CEO From Stefano Domenical, who stated that there was nothing to say. Kallio asked if it was safe to continue the race.
– We’re here, so …, Domenicali said.
When the rehearsals were over, the teams and the race organizers gathered for a meeting, the result of which was that it was unanimously decided to continue the race weekend. However, that consensus did not include the main stars, the drivers. They held their own meeting as early as 2:30 a.m. local time at night. Occasionally, the meeting was attended by, among others, Domenicali and the director of motorsports Ross Brawn.
One way or another, the drivers were made to continue racing. According to the BBC (switching to another service) word spread that the stables would have been threatened that it would not be easy to leave the country if the race was suspended. However, these speculations were widely disputed.
In any case, it became clear that not all drivers were happy with the decisions.
I am not an expert in analyzing Yemen’s long-running and multi-party civil war, but reports say Saudi Arabia and its allies are responsible for many war crimes, such as the fact that in 2018 more than 40 children died in a Saudi-led coalition airstrike.
Yemen’s civil war is one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world, according to the United Nations. More than 10,200 children have died or been injured as a direct result of the fighting. The total number of deaths by December 2021 was 377,000, and 60 percent of the deaths were caused by famine, lack of health care, and unclean water.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, the International Automobile Federation was on the common front to exclude the country from international sports. No one opposed the decision. The unified reaction of sports surprised Finnish researchers as well.
The Sochi race was able to be taken out of Russia. Even Australia’s 2020 F1 was able to cancel at the last minute due to the corona pandemic, but the plight of the Middle East cannot be interrupted.
Aramco, which was hit by Friday’s rocket attacks, is the world’s largest oil and energy company – and the main sponsor of Aston Martin’s F1 team and a major sponsor of the F1 series. President of the International Automobile Federation Mohammed bin Sulayem is a former rally driver from the United Arab Emirates. The United Arab Emirates is also a close ally of Saudi Arabia in the conflict in Yemen, which is therefore the root cause of Friday’s missile strike.
Is anything changing?
The F1 series has invested heavily in safety factors on the track. As for the value base, last year F1 advertised that it takes “violence, human rights abuses and oppression very seriously”.
On March 12, Saudi Arabia executed 81 people during the day.
On March 27, Muhammad bin Salman will once again smile on the start of F1 with Domenical, Brawn, bin Sulayem and partners.