(Jeddah) The F1 Arabian Grand Prix remained on hold after a long meeting between the drivers on the opportunity to participate, following an attack by Yemeni Houthi rebels not far from the Jeddah circuit, which ended without official announcement overnight from Friday to Saturday.
Posted yesterday at 10:23 p.m.
“It’s not for me to speak”, was content to say the Briton George Russell, representative of the drivers’ union (the GPDA), when several team bosses assured the media present: “we are going to race”.
“Ready and totally focused on qualifying tomorrow (Saturday)”, Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) later tweeted, implicitly confirming the decision to race on Sunday.
After more than 4 hours of exchanges between them, with the bosses of their teams and the main leaders of the championship, the CEO of F1 Stefano Domenicali and his sporting director Ross Brawn, the drivers separated around 2:20 a.m. local time, before leaving the circuit without openly declaring their position.
The duration of the meeting, however, suggests that they were not convinced by the assurances of the authorities and the organizers of the championship issued a few hours after the attack on an oil site in Jeddah, which caused a gigantic fire and a cloud of black smoke visible from the circuit from free practice 1 at 5 p.m.
“The authorities have confirmed that the event can continue as planned,” said the championship promoter, Formula 1, in a press release issued a few minutes after free practice 2, shortly after 9 p.m.
Then Stefano Domenicali, the president of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) Mohammed Ben Sulayem and the local authorities received drivers and team bosses to try to reassure them.
“We have received complete assurance that, for the country, security is a priority,” Domenicali explained to the media in particular after this first meeting.
“What are they (the Houthis, editor’s note) aiming for? The economic infrastructures, not the civilians and not the circuit. We have checked the facts and we have high level assurance that this place is secure,” added Ben Sulayem.
The Houthis claimed 16 attacks on Saudi Arabia on Friday, on the eve of the seventh anniversary of the Riyadh-led military coalition’s intervention in Yemen to support the government in the face of rebels close to Iran.