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The F1 Saudi Arabian GP weekend has not been kind to the sport. The missile attack just 10kms away from the track was scary. What was worse was how it was handled in the aftermath by the officials. Sure, team personnel had objections and so did the drivers, but at the end of the day, everyone had to agree to race. What followed were finely curated lines from the team principals that were nothing but disappointing.
On social media, there is still a general sense of disbelief amongst fans that the race went ahead. In the last few years, the sport has talked a good game and run a few interesting campaigns to raise awareness around the world. The #WeRaceAsOne initiative is just one of those that has helped position the sport as a progressive entity.
This is why, for the fans that have just recently started following the sport, all of this comes as a surprise. For the fans that have been following the sport for a while, however, all of this is nothing new. The more the sport changes, the more it remains the same at its core, and with the whole Saudi Arabian GP debacle, the rather uglier side of the sport has been exposed to the fans. A side that many of the fans had forgotten and a side that understands that, at the end of the day, it is a business that runs on copious amounts of money.
The Saudi Arabian GP was not the first time a race was held in questionable circumstances
It might come as a surprise, but the Saudi Arabian GP is not the first time F1 has organized a race in rather questionable circumstances. Taking a trip down memory lane, in 2012, the Bahrain GP got the green light despite the country undergoing civil unrest. The country was in a state of turmoil and it was that turmoil that was responsible for the race getting canceled a year prior. Yet, in 2012, Bernie Ecclestone put his foot down and declared that F1 would go ahead and race in the country.
It was common knowledge by then that the sport was getting a huge sum of money from Bahrain to be part of the calendar (a privilege it enjoys even now). Not racing in the country would mean letting go of significant sums of money and spoiling relations with the country.
There were objections to the race being held in a country going through civilian unrest at the time. Yet, Ecclestone made a decision and stuck to it despite persistent and open threats to the race organizers as well.
For F1, 'Cash is always king'
The Jeddah Corniche circuit's track layout is too fast and too narrow for F1. Last year, the F2 feature race was canceled because of a crash early in the race. The F1 race featured one safety car and as many as two Red Flag stoppages.
This season, the F2 sprint race featured just 6 laps of racing out of a possible 20 laps due to multiple safety and virtual safety cars. Even the F1 race seemed destined to feature multiple stoppages. To add to this, the missile attack occurred just a few km away from the track. Yet, everything went ahead as planned!
One of the biggest reasons behind this has been the growing association of F1 with the Middle Eastern countries. It started with Bahrain but now we have Saudi Arabia, UAE, and even Qatar last season. Sure, some of these tracks look amazing at night, but the very fact that the sport cannot take a stand, pack its bags and leave the country is because of the amount of investment done by these countries. Lest we forget, Aramco, the title sponsor of this year's championship, is a public sector undertaking from Saudi Arabia.
Leaving the home country of your title sponsor after a missile attack is detrimental to the country's global image. When you think about it, did F1 ever have the option of leaving the country? The answer is no, it didn't.
Lewis Hamilton famously stated that cash is king in F1 on the eve of the 2020 Australian GP. He wasn't wrong. F1 has made exponential revenue in its association with the Middle East and if that meant holding a race in rather unfavorable circumstances then the sport seemed more than willing to do that.
It brings into question the actions taken against Russians this year
On a lesser note, this brings to light the actions taken by F1 in the Russia-Ukraine war. While there's no doubting that the sport is sending a message against the war in Ukraine, it begs the question of why the same sport turns a blind eye to what's going on in Saudi Arabia.
Holding a race in a country that is engaged in a hostile battle with Yemen is not necessarily the kind of peace the sport wants to preach, is it? Fortunately for F1, there wasn't anything more controversial in terms of on-track action on Sunday and everyone left the Saudi Arabian GP on a positive note. The entire weekend, however, was a stark reminder of the rather ugly side of the sport that we all love and enjoy being a part of.
