“The show must go on”. An hour after the management of F1, the drivers came out of their silence on Saturday March 26 to announce the continuation of the weekend and the holding of the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia, despite an attack on an oil site at a ten kilometers of the Jeddah circuit on Friday. Stocks of the Aramco group, title sponsor of the race and major partner of F1, had been targeted by missiles fired by the Houthis, an armed rebel group involved in the war in Yemen, while Saudi Arabia supports the Yemeni government forces. After a long discussion of four and a half hours after Friday’s free practice with the Grand Prix organizers and the Saudi authorities, the paddock will be fully booked for qualifying and the race.
“Yesterday was a difficult day for Formula 1 and a stressful day for us driversassured the Grand Prix Drivers Association, equivalent to the drivers’ union. Maybe it’s hard to understand when you’ve never driven an F1 single-seater on the fast and difficult circuit of Jeddah. But seeing the smoke from the incident, it was hard to remain a fully focused pilot and erase our human fears.“During the first free practice session, reigning world champion Max Verstappen asked his Red Bull team”I smell a burning smell, is that my car?“, while the fire raged on the Aramco site, not far from the route.
GPDA statement: pic.twitter.com/mVbUnD49JL
— alex wurz (@alex_wurz) March 26, 2022
As assured by F1 in a press release published on Saturday morning, and its director Stefano Domenicali on Friday, the discipline has obtained sufficient guarantees from Saudi Arabia to be able to ensure the holding of the Grand Prix. “A wide variety of opinions were shared and debated, and, after listening not only to F1 power, but also to Saudi government ministers who explained to us that security measures had been raised to the maximum, the conclusion was decided to take part in practice and qualifying today, and in the race on Sunday.“
This outcome was already no longer really in doubt, while Sergio Pérez had assured on the night of Friday to Saturday to be “ready and fully focused for qualifying“.”We are all aligned with our intentions” for his part, said Pierre Gasly at the end of the pilots’ meeting on Friday evening, at the microphone of Canal +.
. @PierreGASLYthe only pilot to speak after 4h30 of pilots’ meeting #F1at the microphone of @canalplus @Julien_FEBREAU : “Everyone was able to give their opinion. We are all aligned with our intentions.”#SaudiArabianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/vUob90SpFl
– INFOSPORT+ (@infosportplus) March 25, 2022
Free practice 3 begins at 3 p.m. this Saturday, before qualifying at 6 p.m. Following this attack, among the sixteen claimed by the Houthis on Saturday, the forces of the Yemen-Saudi Arabia coalition responded by carrying out airstrikes overnight from Friday to Saturday on positions held by the rebel group in Yemen.