Nearby Missile Strike Won’t Stop F1 Racing this Weekend in Saudi Arabia
Sports Illustrated: The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will go on as planned Sunday despite the ongoing conflict in the country.
Formula One confirmed it earlier on Friday; however, the drivers met for over four hours afterwards, finally leaving the paddock well past 2 a.m. in Jeddah. As of Friday evening ET, the drivers decided to race this weekend, per multiple reports.
Several miles away from the Jeddah street circuit, an Aramco oil depot went up in flames as a large plume of black smoke filled the air earlier in the day. It was visible from the track during the opening practice session.
What an insane day for F1. The race weekend kicked off today with practice, but reports started to circulate on social media that there was a fire burning at a petroleum depot close to the track. It was later reported that the fire was apparently caused by a missile strike. Apparently, this isn’t the first attack in Jeddah, the city hosting the race, over the last two weeks.
I have no idea what is going on with the politics and history behind these attacks, but I’ll say it… missile attacks allegedly happening miles away from where you’re racing is Not Great!
It was very clear seeing all of the quotes from F1 that nothing was going to stop them from making this race happen. There’s way too much money at stake for them to cancel this race, but the only thing that could potentially stop them was the drivers protesting.
After a four hour, closed door meeting, it looks like everyone finally agreed to move forward and race. All twenty drivers on the grid putting aside their racing differences to talk about whether they should even be in Saudi Arabia. Everyone appears to be on the same page now to move forward, but at the same time I can’t imagine they’re excited to be there right now.
This weekend has become about way more than just racing and it will be interesting to see what the drivers and teams have to say about it tomorrow to the media. Still a developing story, but as of right now we’re racing this weekend in Saudi Arabia despite a missile attack miles away from the track. What an insane sentence to type.