F1 2022 Season

Hephaestus said:
"Part of this information involved the possible consequences of not racing, such as how easily teams and drivers would be able to leave the country if the race did not happen." From the BBC. So basically it was race or you can't leave Saudi Arabia.
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If that's the case, they'd better never go back!

The sport is in decline. Purely for money and entertainment with no integrity.
 
Has it been confirmed that it was a strike and not a fire breaking out at the facility? The guardian and other websites they are still saying it's a fire, saying that Houties are claiming it, and not a missle strike. I suppose the Saudis haven't confirmed it themselves.
 
hasanejaz88 said:
Has it been confirmed that it was a strike and not a fire breaking out at the facility? The guardian and other websites they are still saying it's a fire, saying that Houties are claiming it, and not a missle strike. I suppose the Saudis haven't confirmed it themselves.
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Reuters and Bloomberg have it as a drone attack- think pretty much everyone does now.
 
Disappointed the race is going ahead, they cant 100% guarantee the track safety.
I am sure the teams and the driver were warned of the ramification of failing to fulfil their contract obligations.
This was an opportunity for the FIA to stand by their We Rave as One banner, they should have been telling the Saudi's we are packing up and going home.
I will not be watching any more this weekend, nothing else I can do.
I did not think FIA and F1 could get worse that Abu Dhabi , but this it has.
 
Hephaestus said:
"Part of this information involved the possible consequences of not racing, such as how easily teams and drivers would be able to leave the country if the race did not happen." From the BBC. So basically it was race or you can't leave Saudi Arabia.
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What, will they detain 20 drivers? Absolute cnuts for making such threats but nobody would have done shit.
 
Seems unlikely considering the motivation to even have f1 but maybe not worth the risk. Maybe they said if you think it's too dangerous to race, maybe it's too dangerous to fly...
 
Doesnt suprise me that they are racing there in the first place or are going to race this weekend. F1 has always tipped its toe/fully submerged into the murky waters of financing F1 and dont seem to care where the money comes from or how much blood its covered in.

There was a real good Donut Media video a year ago, about the sponsorship you see on the cars and about how you dont recognize some of the sponsors because they dont exist!

 
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Martin Brundle: Cat like reactions from Leclerc avoiding the missile there
 
What's the link to the F1 Fantasy league? I was sure it was bookmarked, but cannot find it. Been a while since I last played.

Edit: Never mind. Found it.
 
The Firestarter said:
What, will they detain 20 drivers? Absolute cnuts for making such threats but nobody would have done shit.
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You've got to think there's massive support teams of engineers, logistics people, commercial and media types etc etc out there, it's not just 20 drivers.
 
dinostar77 said:
Doesnt suprise me that they are racing there in the first place or are going to race this weekend. F1 has always tipped its toe/fully submerged into the murky waters of financing F1 and dont seem to care where the money comes from or hownl much blood its covered in.

There was a real good Donut Media video a year ago, about the sponsorship you see on the cars and about how you dont recognize some of the sponsors because they dont exist!

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Good video, even had a very shady Nigerian Prince.
I will give the stickers a miss.
 
The Firestarter said:
What, will they detain 20 drivers? Absolute cnuts for making such threats but nobody would have done shit.
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As @TwoSheds points out, it's not just the 20 drivers to worry about. When the WWE pissed off the Saudi government a few years back, the top talent were able to escape with no problem but the flight with most of the wrestlers and crew got held on the tarmac for 6 hours - officially blamed on "mechanical issues" but no-one bought it. And that was over a much more minor infraction. I wouldn't be so sure that this was an idle threat.
 
Pretty much an ultimatum of race or you aint leaving from the government it sounds like. Lets see which drivers speak up once they are out of the country.
 
flameinthesun said:
Pretty much an ultimatum of race or you aint leaving from the government it sounds like. Lets see which drivers speak up once they are out of the country.
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I could be that, it has happened before with the WWE.
What about this line from the BBC? "Part of this information involved the possible consequences of not racing, such as how easily teams and drivers would be able to leave the country if the race did not happen."
 
It's so short sighted to take all these dodgy regimes' money and look the other way, or throw in a few platitudes about "needing to do better". I really hope they show some backbone and don't race again in Saudi until, at the very least, they've ended the war in Yemen. Ideally more demands than that (no more executions for example). They're putting all the teams' staff in danger and condoning the regime while they're at it when there must be dozens of alternative tracks and countries around the world that would love to take this race instead.
 
The Firestarter said:
What, will they detain 20 drivers? Absolute cnuts for making such threats but nobody would have done shit.
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As others have said, Saudi Arabia literally did this with WWE a few years ago until they paid up some fee or other, they ended up shoving whoever they could onto the bosses private jet and taking off so that they could run their tv show a few hours later while most of the staff were still sat in Jeddah airport with lots of armed police.

They have literally no issue trapping everybody there.
 
phelans shorts said:
As others have said, Saudi Arabia literally did this with WWE a few years ago until they paid up some fee or other, they ended up shoving whoever they could onto the bosses private jet and taking off so that they could run their tv show a few hours later while most of the staff were still sat in Jeddah airport with lots of armed police.

They have literally no issue trapping everybody there.
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Trapping world famous F1 drivers is a different story though. Much bigger story than WWE guys.
 
TwoSheds said:
It's so short sighted to take all these dodgy regimes' money and look the other way, or throw in a few platitudes about "needing to do better". I really hope they show some backbone and don't race again in Saudi until, at the very least, they've ended the war in Yemen. Ideally more demands than that (no more executions for example). They're putting all the teams' staff in danger and condoning the regime while they're at it when there must be dozens of alternative tracks and countries around the world that would love to take this race instead.
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Steady on, I have tickets to F1 in Austin Texas
 
And just to top it off, a marshal at the track has posted on twitter about how he hopes Hamilton has a crash like Grosjean's in Bahrain. Can't wait for them to announce an extension to the contract to race in Saudi Arabia...
 
That paragraph from the BBC sounds ominous, they're essentially being held hostage and forced to drive if it means what it sounds like. Surely no driver will return next year if that is in fact the case.
 
The hyperbole on this tread sometimes is ridiculous. No one is holding a gun to F1 or the drivers heads. Its utterly ludicrous. The crown prince wants to turn SA into a major tourist destination over next decade or so.

Bad PR is the last thing they need. Though the list of awful things that country does is long (see link below) and sportwashing is one way of cleaning up its image.

Im not sure if sportsmen and women should transcend their sports and get involved in politics of the countries they visit. But its important that people like lewis and seb i.e. proper f1 world champions (if he were in SA) speak up. People listen.

F1 has a global appeal, and what the drivers say does generate headlines. Whether they should, im not sure...

You could say they are all hypocrites as they stood behind a "no war" banner at last GP for Ukraine, but havent said a word or carried out any actions condeming SA for one of the worst humanitarian disasters this century in Yemen.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/60877612

Why is Saudi Arabia's involvement in sport controversial?
 
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