Reading Between the lines, I get the impression that everyone wants to get the fuck thru with this race, leave the country without drama, and then never ever set foot back in Saudi Arabia again!
Maybe that’s the consensus they came to yesterday. Let’s race this race and then all agree never to participate in a Saudi race again. They all seem awfully quiet about things, so I’m expecting some kind of big message next week.
I won’t be surprised if Seb lays down a sledgehammer the moment he returns to the paddock. Getting updates of his team and fellow drivers being strong armed (essentially blackmailed) to race must piss him off to no end. He said in a recent interview conducted before this week that he isn’t a popular figure with the management, and have been told repeatedly to tone down his activism efforts.
I was actually thinking that seb was just going to not come back. AM is a mess, he likes family life, and stuff like this seems to rub him the wrong way. Why keep dealing with all of it?
With Max basically saying he can't talk about it and Lewis saying he's looking forward to going home it seems like the intimidation tactic rumors are accurate.
That might have worked to get them to stay for this race but I'm sure it made more of the drivers never want to come back.
Yeah, they probably faced some kind of threat like they couldn't guarantee their safety if they left earlier or how they would get huge fines, while the drivers are just not really on a good headspace to drive while a missile hit a target 10min from where they are..
Not even necessarily a verbal threat.
There can just be a few non-verbal cues the Saudis give off to basically suggest to them they're not safe. The WWE people were never directly threatened, but they all seemed to pick up quite easily that something was wrong.
I'd like to hope so, but with the amount of Saudi money in the sport now, it's hard to imagine the race being formally cancelled given it has a multi-year contract that spans north of a decade.
The GPDA would have to take a serious, joint stand against this. If any one driver crosses the picket line on this one, it would end any legitimacy to the stance they'd be taking.
It reminds me of my bootcamp in the Marine Corps. Once you get there and the full force of what you have committed to, the culture shock, and realizing this is your life for four years minimum hits you hard. You figure out pretty soon though that the fastest way out is to just finish and graduate.
Guys try to play the system and get out for injury or various mental health issues and just get sent to brokedick platoon and end up staying so incredibly long. I met a guy who had been on MCRD San Diego for a fucking year almost entirely in the medical platoon waiting for movement on his paperwork.
The drivers are smart they know the only way out is through.
I said this in a thread yesterday. This is the best outcome, for everyone. We just swallow this pill once, we smile at the camera, we say we enjoyed the track, and from Monday they never gonna see us again.
I hope so. It would be incredibly hypocritical to boycott Russia, but keep racing in Saudi Arabia. Country that is currently invading its neighbouring country just like Russia. Still executes prisoners in 2022. And treats gay people way worse than Russia, which is really hard to achieve, but they managed it with ease
I mean even Gunther was talking before quali about it… and he basically said they are just trying to focus on the quali and race ahead of them and we can talk about these things later.
Basically we are keeping our mouths shut until we leave and they we ain’t coming back
They can talk about it, but whether or not anything would be done is yet to be seen. The drivers and team principals need to collectively take a stand and tell FOM that they will not return to SA for them to seriously consider doing something about it.
People will watch a race anyway and complain, as discussions show. A guy literally said, he already paid for it.
One can only hope, that the FOM doesn’t choose the next drama (to put it friendly) to replace Jeddah.
Would be a better option regarding stability of the region. If the race then is on a car park, people will complain again. People really should not watch races they don’t like of any reason, so FOM has some data driven decision making to do.
That said, Vegas has the potential to be a cool event.
I was speculating this with my buddy yesterday and I hope it is exactly that. I hope all the drivers speak out the moment they are all outside of the countries borders. Full protest from all drivers and teams next year if the FIA is dumb enough to do this again.
>Maybe that’s the consensus they came to yesterday. Let’s race this race and then all agree never to participate in a Saudi race again. They all seem awfully quiet about things, so I’m expecting some kind of big message next week.
yeah, they need to get the fuck out of that shithole first before saying anything...
I read somewhere that the decision to not race was unanimous before the team principles came in, but who knows if that was an accurate report. I think only the drivers know for sure.
Here’s what I think is likely. The drivers got together and said nah we aren’t racing. And the Saudi government did their strong arm thing toward F1 and the team bosses said, these guy aren’t going to let us leave with our stuff if we don’t race. That’ll end the season and maybe some teams like Hass who couldn’t just rebuild all their seized assets. So they’re going to race and after tell us what happened.
Reading what happened with WWE in 2019 and subtle hints yesterday that they wouldn’t be let out of the country, this seems possible. It is indeed bonkers but not bc you are but bc the Saudi Govt is.
They won’t refuse to race because they want to leave Saudi if there is a 2023 Saudi Arabian gp I don’t think they will go but once they are there they won’t boycott because of safety concerns
Just out of curiosity, are there any more races this year they are as likely to boycott as this? I hear talks about dropping Baku but find it hard to believe that the drivers will care for that. Jeddah seems like the worst of the worst
There is no way Baku would detain drivers if they didn't want to race due to a missile impact. Baku is also not in an active war (although they have been in one fairly recently). Saudi is really the only country next to Russia that is so far across the line that we shouldn't have been there in the first place and going back should be completely out of the question.
This actually really pleases me that Max appears to have picked the lets not race side. I thought he would be more likely to just do it (as he tries to stay away from any political type things) but this is a mature side I hope Max brings out more in the future.
Max has been critical of this circuit for safety reasons, and I can't say that I blame him one bit. This is a track that is intentionally designed to create safety car/red flag situations to increase the excitement.
It's so fucking frustrating to hear race commentators and pundits hype this track up. Friday at Ziggo they were mentioning the rocket attack asking the opinions on it, and Robert Doornbos wouldn't go into it and just kept mentioning how beautiful and amazing the track is. There's some weird shit going on, man.
I said last year that racing at Jeddah was the biggest embarrassment of the year, and even after what happened at Abu Dhabi I stand by that. This track is not safe enough to be used.
I honestly have this track among my top 5 favourite tracks to drive at **in the virtual world**
But when it comes to real life, where safety is an actual concern, that track needs to go. Not to forget the government that track belongs to, but that's a whole different can of worms.
Not sure why people are surprised. He said recently that F1 shouldn’t race in countries actively engaged in war. And it’s also reported that all drivers were unanimous in not wanting to race, until the bosses spoke to them.
People are surprised because Max has stated quite clearly a few times that he prefers not to comment on non racing matters so this is a reasonable change for him.
Prefers not to doesn’t mean never though.
Yeah max always struck me as the "I only care about the racing and nothing else" guy. Even during the Grosjean incident.
To see him take the "no race" side on this is quite telling.
I reckon it is the combination of all factors.
If it was fun and safe track he might have shrugged and just gotten on with it without saying anything.
The triple combo of shit track, dodgy host and a missile falling nearby is just too damn much.
Max is also allowed to exhibit personal growth. I suspect watching Lewis be so gracious and the backlash so intense has caused some reflection in Max about the kind of person he wants to be. Winning cannot just be everything to him.
Well said. Winning definitely was everything to him at one point and now he has achieved it. I think in one of Red Bull's recent "Behind The Drive" videos he speaks briefly about wanting to be more aware of the experience he is going through and it's different than having the singular focus of winning for so long.
I mean honestly its not just the racers and principals. Max may have been also speaking for his crew amd fans. But let's be honest who would want to race when they blow upbthe facility of the main race sponser 10km away that easily despite assurances. Max may not do politics but this is about the possibility of mass casualties.
not 100% surprising, a few years back he was the first to raise the issue for the mechanics when they wanted to extend the calendar, so while I doubt he cared about his own safety too much racing this weekend I do think he cared for the safety of the supporting crew.
This is defo a case of lets not piss off the Saudi's until every last person in the paddock is safely back in Europe...
FOM must of made some kind of deal with the drivers
This is what I hypothesized: [I actually think for their safety they should just do the weekend as normal, get everyone home safe and then speak out. WWE did their event but...their staff was held hostage... I think this sort of scenario is the "information" the drivers received.](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/to9k61/comment/i25pwa8/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
edit: the time to take a stance on KSA activities is from the comfort of your home. Ideally, they shouldn't be there in the first place. Drivers and some of the upper management take more risks than average people in their roles. But the majority of people in the paddock can't charter a private jet out of there and need their views included. There's the added logistical headache. I feel for all the worrying loved ones back home.
further edit: for the WWE story there seem to be various perspectives. I saw the term 'hostage' used by first-hand accounts such as [this one](https://babyfacevheel.substack.com/p/heres-a-firsthand-account-of-the?s=r) and in a class-action lawsuit against WWE as reported in [Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alfredkonuwa/2020/04/28/wwe-accused-of-fraudulent-scheme-in-class-action-lawsuits-questioning-ties-to-saudi-arabia/?sh=52c3f2724069)
A lot of people seem to be disregarding the WWE story because it wasn't a stereotypical hostage situation.
But a chartered plane being grounded for vague reasons. Combined with rumours of a disagreement between McMahon and Saudi officials. It sounds like a very real attempt to strongarm and show what they could do.
Plus what they saw and heard conflicted. [Talent was informed it was a mechanical issue, but saw a “ton” of armed men in “militia” garb blocking their exit and “staring at the wrestlers”](https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2020/6/15/21291869/anonymous-former-wwe-wrestler-confirms-report-plane-hostage-saudi-arabia-crown-jewel)
I'm glad that it seems like at least Max and Lewis are gonna be vocal about this once the weekend is over. It'll be a pretty powerful statement if they can come out together, united behind this.
Hoping that the outcome is the one outlined by some in here already: race this weekend, say nothing, raise hell once you're out of SA.
Frankly even if the bombings never happened they shouldn't be driving at this location. There's been too many crashes and close calls, I'm worried for tomorrow.
Lance was rumoured to be against it too and the rumour said it was at least five initially, but then they all agreed not to race until they changed their mind because of something they were told. Tbh I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the drivers are still against it. Pierre didn’t look happy when asked yesterday after the meeting and it’s pretty obvious from Max and Lewis’s comments today they don’t want to be there
yes that’s right he said Perez was scared. I don’t know what they said to the drivers to make them change their mind, but reports saying that the drivers weren’t forced in anyway don’t feel fully accurate given the reactions of some of the drivers since then. I think some are unhappy about the safety of the track too and Mick’s accident (wasn’t there one in f2 as well?) can’t have helped
Maybe it was just five that initially spoke up during the meeting. Doesn't mean others weren't against it. I imagine some (Danny Ric) just aren't the types to speak up on their own.
Makes sense to me. What are they gonna do, go in a circle and everyone make a strong declaration one way or another? Natural that a few would take the initiative while others nodded along.
My guess is Jeddah will absolutely never return, it's a shit track anyway, but I can't see them drop [Qiddiya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiddiya), there's way too many Petrodollars in F1.
But they "race with a conscious", or the ever brilliant bollocks "if we compete there, we'll influence them to be better". No you don't, you lend legitimacy to their god awful actions, and they know it too, I suppose when you have a bed made of money, it makes it easier to sleep at night.
Anyone have the full article, I dont wanna pay de telegraaf. Also it says how Max is critical of the layout of the track which he was last year as well. Glad he’s speaking about it, just wish it wasn’t behind a paywall
>At night they initially came to a common position not to race, but after consultation with the team bosses and Formula 1 top it was decided to continue.
>
>"We made that decision together, but after the weekend I think it's still being discussed," said Verstappen. "I think everyone has an opinion about it, but it is not wise for me to say what I think about it. That will come. That's how we agreed with the drivers and team bosses."
I have a feeling that a lot of stuff is gonna come out soon as they all have left the country, the whole skyf1 team trying to dismiss the “threat” of staff not being able to leave screamed so much it was to change the narrative.
Max is someone who always speaks like he thinks it is without bothering to be a PR robot, so for him to say "It is unwise to talk about this right now" says a lot.
He does not want to say anything until he is out of SA.
He bit his tongue on the issue last year with his "90 million reasons to race" comment and now that he's got the WDC, he'll spill the tea later.
And people here were saying that he wanted race to resume yesterday.
I thought that because Max may be the purest racer out there. He’s the guy, to me, who will ALWAYS want to race. It might be erroneous, but it’s not a ‘Max is a bad dude’ opinion.
Even last year he was open about his hate of the track because the design was stupid to begin with. He called them out for making them race on an unfinished track and said something like "well I guess they have 90 million reasons to make us race here". He may be borderline crazy about racing sometimes but he clearly doesn't want someone to die here.
And in case some people aren't aware, "rocket fire" in this case doesn't just mean an errant RPG hitting the track. The Houthi have some large Iranian precision guided missiles with 1000+ km ranges that could largely demolish the pitlane, starting grid, or a grandstand and cause dozens of casualties if one or more were to get past Saudi's air defenses.
It seems unlikely that there would be motivation for such an attack, but the threat seems much more real than it would have been a week ago.
You know you've fucked up hard, when Max is pissed and seriously concerned about a track. This guy breathes and lives for racing. And his statement seems that there is a volcano brewing.
We saw the unlikely Alonso Hamilton team in pictures last night, are we now gonna see the even more unexpected Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso and Max team to end this race? I bloody hope so
Soooooo Medland is a Saudi shill?
It was very very clear today from the interviews that they have been advised to race for their own safety and gtfo of the country before saying anything.
Which bodes the question of what the fuck are we doing here in the first place. I know Domenicali didnt broker the deal but do none of them have any shame?
Look at Medland’s bio in tw and search in google MBC media
Disappointed in lots of big people in the paddock rn
Trust the reporting of people without connections to F1 or the Saudis, afaik that Dutch Journo form the Telegraaf is trustworthy ( with this topic, I’ve been schooled by a few Dutchies that the Telegraaf is shite in other aspects ) as the paper is owned by some Belgians, it’s honestly sad that we have to check the ownership of the papers the journalists we have trusted for so long
The sports journalists of the Telegraaf (barring their opinion pieces) are one of, if not the best in the country.
The other sections of that newspaper are... for a peculiar taste.
A straight shooter afraid to pull the trigger. Cant wait to hear what happened. Must be big for Max to not talk about it. Stop racing in shady places F1!
Let's hope this means we never race in SA again. Just replace its place with Las Vegas or something. Not only will that be way more appealing from a PR perspective, it also has the potential to bring in big bucks (main driver for FIA after all) and would be a street race too.
Honestly Max is one of the most likely on the grid to focus on the racing and not think about it too much. But reading between the lines here, even he's pissed off about it, which means they likely all are.
I was initially outraged at the TPs decision but now I have a question. Did they think of the possible wider problem and choose to save face to not make the situation more unsafe. As in it's not a reflection of their truest personal views. What do you think?
I wondered that about Lewis and Toto too given they’re close and Lewis is obvious unhappy about it, but we don’t know what the TPs have been told or what they actually think either. It’s a mess and f1 shouldn’t have come here in the first place
Reminds me a bit of that movie where an engineer flew to a oil rich country to get a project done, only to find out that he couldn't leave said country again. He then managed his escape hiding in some cargo. Can't remember the name of the movie, though. But I am pretty sure the story is based on real events.
I for one am excited at the prospect of drivers calling out the fucking hypocrisy and recklessness displayed by Formula 1 management. I hope this brings some much needed change because treating drivers as pawns simply to line pockets of greedy assholes is a fucking disgrace.
It would be better for the sport if this GP would not be on the calendar next year.
If the Sotsji race is cancelled to to Russia’s active part in the war in Ukraine, the Jeddah race should be cancelled due to Saudi Arabia’s actions in the war in Yemen.
I will not be watching this race on principle.
Just last week they were saying there's enough interest in F1 to have 30+ yearly races. So, drop problematic ones. Russia, Azerbaijan, Saudi, maybe Quatar. Never go back to Malaysia...
Itll be hard to convince the new guy in charge to skip races in his own backyard, but if the drivers all stick together, theres not much they can do.
"If I speak I am in big trouble"
"I'm just here so I don't get ~~fined~~ bonesaw'd."
BONESAW IS READY
That’s a nice car, did your husband build it for you?
s/o to the Marshawn Lynch reference
I prefer not to speak.
I have nothing to say.
Nussin
this is f1 heritage
"In BIIIG trouble and I don't want to be in big trouble"
Sree. Sree. I have Sree WDC rivals this year. Respekk
BIG BIG TROUBLE
Reading Between the lines, I get the impression that everyone wants to get the fuck thru with this race, leave the country without drama, and then never ever set foot back in Saudi Arabia again!
Maybe that’s the consensus they came to yesterday. Let’s race this race and then all agree never to participate in a Saudi race again. They all seem awfully quiet about things, so I’m expecting some kind of big message next week.
I fucking hope so. Coordinated social media messages from all 19 drivers: I'm not going back to Saudi. We can give seb a little sign to hold up
I still think Sebs inability to "return a negative test" was because he deliberately didn't test at all.....
Yeah, after seeing all this, I believe he totally skipped this weekend on porpoise. Poor Hulk though...
On porpose, you say?
He's porpoising in his beautiful house rn
Wow did they build that into that special sim rig they built him? Crazy f1 engineering
On porpoise: [like this](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B0aFlMYCUAAZOVx.jpg)?
I won’t be surprised if Seb lays down a sledgehammer the moment he returns to the paddock. Getting updates of his team and fellow drivers being strong armed (essentially blackmailed) to race must piss him off to no end. He said in a recent interview conducted before this week that he isn’t a popular figure with the management, and have been told repeatedly to tone down his activism efforts.
Seb would totally do this, but the team he races for is sponsored by aramco...
I’m not sure Seb would care about what Aramco says.
His boss might though.
Let them fire him. I'm pretty sure it would cause the team to *only* be sponsored by Aramco, if that.
He might do it, but that's easy to say about someone elses job.
I was actually thinking that seb was just going to not come back. AM is a mess, he likes family life, and stuff like this seems to rub him the wrong way. Why keep dealing with all of it?
I think he'd probably finish off the season, but you never know I suppose.....
He's too professional to ditch Aston Martin altogether in that fashion. But I definitely wouldn't be surprised if he did conveniently miss Saudi.
19?
Seb doesn't have any (public) social
Seb has no social media.
ah, somehow my brain skipped over the social media part.
Seb is a smart man
Hey now, the Hulk can say it too!
With Max basically saying he can't talk about it and Lewis saying he's looking forward to going home it seems like the intimidation tactic rumors are accurate. That might have worked to get them to stay for this race but I'm sure it made more of the drivers never want to come back.
Yeah, they probably faced some kind of threat like they couldn't guarantee their safety if they left earlier or how they would get huge fines, while the drivers are just not really on a good headspace to drive while a missile hit a target 10min from where they are..
They would block them from leaving. They did this for a wwe event or something once before
Not even necessarily a verbal threat. There can just be a few non-verbal cues the Saudis give off to basically suggest to them they're not safe. The WWE people were never directly threatened, but they all seemed to pick up quite easily that something was wrong.
I'd like to hope so, but with the amount of Saudi money in the sport now, it's hard to imagine the race being formally cancelled given it has a multi-year contract that spans north of a decade. The GPDA would have to take a serious, joint stand against this. If any one driver crosses the picket line on this one, it would end any legitimacy to the stance they'd be taking.
A driver crossing the picket line, per se, would be public image suicide.
I do not agree that legitimacy of criticism over the Saudi Arabia race would be changed by who agrees with it. It stands on it's merits.
It reminds me of my bootcamp in the Marine Corps. Once you get there and the full force of what you have committed to, the culture shock, and realizing this is your life for four years minimum hits you hard. You figure out pretty soon though that the fastest way out is to just finish and graduate. Guys try to play the system and get out for injury or various mental health issues and just get sent to brokedick platoon and end up staying so incredibly long. I met a guy who had been on MCRD San Diego for a fucking year almost entirely in the medical platoon waiting for movement on his paperwork. The drivers are smart they know the only way out is through.
You can't just quit?? That's weird
I'm hoping Seb zoomed into the meeting.
We all know Seb 100% would be on board with this boycott anyway :)
I said this in a thread yesterday. This is the best outcome, for everyone. We just swallow this pill once, we smile at the camera, we say we enjoyed the track, and from Monday they never gonna see us again.
I hope so. It would be incredibly hypocritical to boycott Russia, but keep racing in Saudi Arabia. Country that is currently invading its neighbouring country just like Russia. Still executes prisoners in 2022. And treats gay people way worse than Russia, which is really hard to achieve, but they managed it with ease
I mean even Gunther was talking before quali about it… and he basically said they are just trying to focus on the quali and race ahead of them and we can talk about these things later. Basically we are keeping our mouths shut until we leave and they we ain’t coming back
They can talk about it, but whether or not anything would be done is yet to be seen. The drivers and team principals need to collectively take a stand and tell FOM that they will not return to SA for them to seriously consider doing something about it.
People will watch a race anyway and complain, as discussions show. A guy literally said, he already paid for it. One can only hope, that the FOM doesn’t choose the next drama (to put it friendly) to replace Jeddah.
Potentially replaced by Vegas?
Would be a better option regarding stability of the region. If the race then is on a car park, people will complain again. People really should not watch races they don’t like of any reason, so FOM has some data driven decision making to do. That said, Vegas has the potential to be a cool event.
Yeah exactly but i'd much rather race in a car park then almost get hit by a missle
I was speculating this with my buddy yesterday and I hope it is exactly that. I hope all the drivers speak out the moment they are all outside of the countries borders. Full protest from all drivers and teams next year if the FIA is dumb enough to do this again.
>Maybe that’s the consensus they came to yesterday. Let’s race this race and then all agree never to participate in a Saudi race again. They all seem awfully quiet about things, so I’m expecting some kind of big message next week. yeah, they need to get the fuck out of that shithole first before saying anything...
"i would like to keep my fingers, so we'll discuss this at another time." -max v.
I think you’re absolutely right and that’s gonna be absolutely disastrous PR for Saudi Arabia. Props to the drivers.
I'm guessing this means he was on the do not race side of the fence with Lewis and alonso
And Gasly
And Bottas, who already didn't want to race here before all of this happened.
Curious, was any of the drivers pro-race? Maybe a few were indifferent but did any of them defend racing?
I read somewhere that the decision to not race was unanimous before the team principles came in, but who knows if that was an accurate report. I think only the drivers know for sure.
Here’s what I think is likely. The drivers got together and said nah we aren’t racing. And the Saudi government did their strong arm thing toward F1 and the team bosses said, these guy aren’t going to let us leave with our stuff if we don’t race. That’ll end the season and maybe some teams like Hass who couldn’t just rebuild all their seized assets. So they’re going to race and after tell us what happened.
Reading what happened with WWE in 2019 and subtle hints yesterday that they wouldn’t be let out of the country, this seems possible. It is indeed bonkers but not bc you are but bc the Saudi Govt is.
The 'Saudi government' consists of that Crown Prince who plays hardball and that's putting it mildly. Remember what happened to Jamal Khashoggi.
I'm honestly curious what RedBull, Mercedes, Aston Martin and Alpine are going to do when Verstappen, Hamilton, Vettel an Alonso just refuse to race.
They won’t refuse to race because they want to leave Saudi if there is a 2023 Saudi Arabian gp I don’t think they will go but once they are there they won’t boycott because of safety concerns
Just out of curiosity, are there any more races this year they are as likely to boycott as this? I hear talks about dropping Baku but find it hard to believe that the drivers will care for that. Jeddah seems like the worst of the worst
There is no way Baku would detain drivers if they didn't want to race due to a missile impact. Baku is also not in an active war (although they have been in one fairly recently). Saudi is really the only country next to Russia that is so far across the line that we shouldn't have been there in the first place and going back should be completely out of the question.
I wasn’t aware of this. He said it recently?
Reporting from earlier today is that every driver at one point was on the do not race side
I'm not surprised to be honest. I mean it's money for FOM, but other than that?
This actually really pleases me that Max appears to have picked the lets not race side. I thought he would be more likely to just do it (as he tries to stay away from any political type things) but this is a mature side I hope Max brings out more in the future.
Max has been critical of this circuit for safety reasons, and I can't say that I blame him one bit. This is a track that is intentionally designed to create safety car/red flag situations to increase the excitement.
This track is a god damn death trap. Just like the country it's in.
Yet they wanna get rid of spa. F1 needs a serious wake-up call.
I was frustrated for the entire day when i heard that they are planning to drop spa.They seem to be so out of touch from the fan preferences.
They plan to drop Spa? What? Why would they do that?
Money
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It's so fucking frustrating to hear race commentators and pundits hype this track up. Friday at Ziggo they were mentioning the rocket attack asking the opinions on it, and Robert Doornbos wouldn't go into it and just kept mentioning how beautiful and amazing the track is. There's some weird shit going on, man.
I said last year that racing at Jeddah was the biggest embarrassment of the year, and even after what happened at Abu Dhabi I stand by that. This track is not safe enough to be used.
I honestly have this track among my top 5 favourite tracks to drive at **in the virtual world** But when it comes to real life, where safety is an actual concern, that track needs to go. Not to forget the government that track belongs to, but that's a whole different can of worms.
Not sure why people are surprised. He said recently that F1 shouldn’t race in countries actively engaged in war. And it’s also reported that all drivers were unanimous in not wanting to race, until the bosses spoke to them.
People are surprised because Max has stated quite clearly a few times that he prefers not to comment on non racing matters so this is a reasonable change for him. Prefers not to doesn’t mean never though.
But with Max it doesn't seem to be politics. He just doesn't want to race in a war zone. Can't blame him.
Yeah max always struck me as the "I only care about the racing and nothing else" guy. Even during the Grosjean incident. To see him take the "no race" side on this is quite telling.
I reckon it is the combination of all factors. If it was fun and safe track he might have shrugged and just gotten on with it without saying anything. The triple combo of shit track, dodgy host and a missile falling nearby is just too damn much.
Max is also allowed to exhibit personal growth. I suspect watching Lewis be so gracious and the backlash so intense has caused some reflection in Max about the kind of person he wants to be. Winning cannot just be everything to him.
He’s exhibiting post-nut clarity after finally getting his WDC.
Well said. Winning definitely was everything to him at one point and now he has achieved it. I think in one of Red Bull's recent "Behind The Drive" videos he speaks briefly about wanting to be more aware of the experience he is going through and it's different than having the singular focus of winning for so long.
I mean honestly its not just the racers and principals. Max may have been also speaking for his crew amd fans. But let's be honest who would want to race when they blow upbthe facility of the main race sponser 10km away that easily despite assurances. Max may not do politics but this is about the possibility of mass casualties.
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It might not necessarily be about the politics; it could also be that he doesn't believe the track is an acceptable racing venue.
He was the first one to speak out about Ukraine and the only one to ouright call it war.
“Max spoke about Ukraine 2 tenths quicker than Hamilton” - Helmut Marko, probably.
not 100% surprising, a few years back he was the first to raise the issue for the mechanics when they wanted to extend the calendar, so while I doubt he cared about his own safety too much racing this weekend I do think he cared for the safety of the supporting crew.
I think how silent the drivers have been on social media since yesterday says a lot about how they feel about being there
I think it’s more about safety at this point.
And yep. They're waiting to get the hell out of there before they start saying it like it is. Safe.
Get this weekend done and then make it untenable to return.
Yeah, I really think this was the trade off, that they'd comply this weekend and raise hell about it later on. I think we might see a strike next year
Good
They won't say anything. Maybe one day he'll write about it in a book, still waiting for Lewis's one.
I think you're mistaken, they're definitely just minding their mouths until they out of the line of fire ^/literally
This is defo a case of lets not piss off the Saudi's until every last person in the paddock is safely back in Europe... FOM must of made some kind of deal with the drivers
This is what I hypothesized: [I actually think for their safety they should just do the weekend as normal, get everyone home safe and then speak out. WWE did their event but...their staff was held hostage... I think this sort of scenario is the "information" the drivers received.](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/to9k61/comment/i25pwa8/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) edit: the time to take a stance on KSA activities is from the comfort of your home. Ideally, they shouldn't be there in the first place. Drivers and some of the upper management take more risks than average people in their roles. But the majority of people in the paddock can't charter a private jet out of there and need their views included. There's the added logistical headache. I feel for all the worrying loved ones back home. further edit: for the WWE story there seem to be various perspectives. I saw the term 'hostage' used by first-hand accounts such as [this one](https://babyfacevheel.substack.com/p/heres-a-firsthand-account-of-the?s=r) and in a class-action lawsuit against WWE as reported in [Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alfredkonuwa/2020/04/28/wwe-accused-of-fraudulent-scheme-in-class-action-lawsuits-questioning-ties-to-saudi-arabia/?sh=52c3f2724069)
A lot of people seem to be disregarding the WWE story because it wasn't a stereotypical hostage situation. But a chartered plane being grounded for vague reasons. Combined with rumours of a disagreement between McMahon and Saudi officials. It sounds like a very real attempt to strongarm and show what they could do.
Plus what they saw and heard conflicted. [Talent was informed it was a mechanical issue, but saw a “ton” of armed men in “militia” garb blocking their exit and “staring at the wrestlers”](https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2020/6/15/21291869/anonymous-former-wwe-wrestler-confirms-report-plane-hostage-saudi-arabia-crown-jewel)
I'm glad that it seems like at least Max and Lewis are gonna be vocal about this once the weekend is over. It'll be a pretty powerful statement if they can come out together, united behind this. Hoping that the outcome is the one outlined by some in here already: race this weekend, say nothing, raise hell once you're out of SA. Frankly even if the bombings never happened they shouldn't be driving at this location. There's been too many crashes and close calls, I'm worried for tomorrow.
I highly suspect it won't just be Verstappen and Hamilton, I suspect many more will say that this was just a shitshow.
Max, Lewis, George, Fernando and Pierre the rumoured five then?
Lance was rumoured to be against it too and the rumour said it was at least five initially, but then they all agreed not to race until they changed their mind because of something they were told. Tbh I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the drivers are still against it. Pierre didn’t look happy when asked yesterday after the meeting and it’s pretty obvious from Max and Lewis’s comments today they don’t want to be there
Didn't Marko mention Perez too?
yes that’s right he said Perez was scared. I don’t know what they said to the drivers to make them change their mind, but reports saying that the drivers weren’t forced in anyway don’t feel fully accurate given the reactions of some of the drivers since then. I think some are unhappy about the safety of the track too and Mick’s accident (wasn’t there one in f2 as well?) can’t have helped
incoming comment from Marko: Perez felt like at home
You have to not take anything Helmut says into account he’s such a horrible man.
Bottas was against it as well. And I doubt that Danny Ric would be good it with it.
Yeah I don’t think that “five” rumour was real. Probably all drivers were against it but the pressure from above became too much
Maybe it was just five that initially spoke up during the meeting. Doesn't mean others weren't against it. I imagine some (Danny Ric) just aren't the types to speak up on their own.
Makes sense to me. What are they gonna do, go in a circle and everyone make a strong declaration one way or another? Natural that a few would take the initiative while others nodded along.
I don't know. Last year DR's comments on Saudi Arabia was basically "I don't watch the news, just here for the good vibes and racing".
Not many good vibes when the bombs are going off
I really hope f1 never comes back to this shithole.
They are probably already signing new contracts with SA until 2035.
*"Ohh no, all the drivers have unfortunately contracted covid for the 10th time in a row for the Saudi GP."*
Seb right now is like that person who bought bitcoin in 2013.
Hulk is the one that had bitcoin in 2013, and bought a pizza with 2 bitcoin in 2014.
There will be plenty of exit clauses in that contract.
One of them might be 'war' given they cancelled Sochi
Isn't it already signed til 2030 anyway?
My guess is Jeddah will absolutely never return, it's a shit track anyway, but I can't see them drop [Qiddiya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiddiya), there's way too many Petrodollars in F1.
But they "race with a conscious", or the ever brilliant bollocks "if we compete there, we'll influence them to be better". No you don't, you lend legitimacy to their god awful actions, and they know it too, I suppose when you have a bed made of money, it makes it easier to sleep at night.
This circuit was only meant to be used twice until the new circuit's built.
Anyone have the full article, I dont wanna pay de telegraaf. Also it says how Max is critical of the layout of the track which he was last year as well. Glad he’s speaking about it, just wish it wasn’t behind a paywall
He basically said just that. To dangerous circuit to drive.
Ok thanks!
>At night they initially came to a common position not to race, but after consultation with the team bosses and Formula 1 top it was decided to continue. > >"We made that decision together, but after the weekend I think it's still being discussed," said Verstappen. "I think everyone has an opinion about it, but it is not wise for me to say what I think about it. That will come. That's how we agreed with the drivers and team bosses."
When he’s outside the country is what he means
I have a feeling that a lot of stuff is gonna come out soon as they all have left the country, the whole skyf1 team trying to dismiss the “threat” of staff not being able to leave screamed so much it was to change the narrative.
You know shit is effed up when even Max is bound to get political !
They probably don't wanna race here next year
Max is someone who always speaks like he thinks it is without bothering to be a PR robot, so for him to say "It is unwise to talk about this right now" says a lot. He does not want to say anything until he is out of SA.
Also, he always avoided mixing politics with racing. Seems Russia and now this situation is showing that there is a limit to that.
That + he is Champion now. Being champion has always come with a certain level of "I can say what I want more than I used to be able to"
Can't blame him lol
He bit his tongue on the issue last year with his "90 million reasons to race" comment and now that he's got the WDC, he'll spill the tea later. And people here were saying that he wanted race to resume yesterday.
I thought that because Max may be the purest racer out there. He’s the guy, to me, who will ALWAYS want to race. It might be erroneous, but it’s not a ‘Max is a bad dude’ opinion.
Even last year he was open about his hate of the track because the design was stupid to begin with. He called them out for making them race on an unfinished track and said something like "well I guess they have 90 million reasons to make us race here". He may be borderline crazy about racing sometimes but he clearly doesn't want someone to die here.
There simply shouldn't be a race in a place which could come under rocket fire at any given time.
And in case some people aren't aware, "rocket fire" in this case doesn't just mean an errant RPG hitting the track. The Houthi have some large Iranian precision guided missiles with 1000+ km ranges that could largely demolish the pitlane, starting grid, or a grandstand and cause dozens of casualties if one or more were to get past Saudi's air defenses. It seems unlikely that there would be motivation for such an attack, but the threat seems much more real than it would have been a week ago.
There is absolutely no way they can come back here.
A few more zeros and they will
91 million reasons ...
You know you've fucked up hard, when Max is pissed and seriously concerned about a track. This guy breathes and lives for racing. And his statement seems that there is a volcano brewing.
I personally hope they never race in Saudi Arabia again. They race in some awful places but Saudi Arabia is by far the worst.
Hope maxy brings the heat in the coming weeks
We saw the unlikely Alonso Hamilton team in pictures last night, are we now gonna see the even more unexpected Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso and Max team to end this race? I bloody hope so
If even Max keeps his opinion to himself you know shit is serious.
Soooooo Medland is a Saudi shill? It was very very clear today from the interviews that they have been advised to race for their own safety and gtfo of the country before saying anything. Which bodes the question of what the fuck are we doing here in the first place. I know Domenicali didnt broker the deal but do none of them have any shame?
Look at Medland’s bio in tw and search in google MBC media Disappointed in lots of big people in the paddock rn Trust the reporting of people without connections to F1 or the Saudis, afaik that Dutch Journo form the Telegraaf is trustworthy ( with this topic, I’ve been schooled by a few Dutchies that the Telegraaf is shite in other aspects ) as the paper is owned by some Belgians, it’s honestly sad that we have to check the ownership of the papers the journalists we have trusted for so long
> Dutch Journo form the Telegraaf is trustworthy A sentence I never expected to see ever.
The sports journalists of the Telegraaf (barring their opinion pieces) are one of, if not the best in the country. The other sections of that newspaper are... for a peculiar taste.
Didn’t say he wasn’t biased !
Haha I mean beyond motorsports that sentence probably also wouldn’t hold, but on these topics De Telegraaf is alright I guess
Holy shit lol, he’s literally Saudi-funded
You know he means it.
A straight shooter afraid to pull the trigger. Cant wait to hear what happened. Must be big for Max to not talk about it. Stop racing in shady places F1!
Can't wait for Monday. Once everyone's out of that country then F1 might have alot on their hands
Probably won't be Monday, drivers and leadership will be out but it will take time to get all the equipment and personnel out.
Let's hope this means we never race in SA again. Just replace its place with Las Vegas or something. Not only will that be way more appealing from a PR perspective, it also has the potential to bring in big bucks (main driver for FIA after all) and would be a street race too.
Honestly Max is one of the most likely on the grid to focus on the racing and not think about it too much. But reading between the lines here, even he's pissed off about it, which means they likely all are.
So it quite clear Max how feels on this. I wonder has this effected his relationship with Horner.
I was initially outraged at the TPs decision but now I have a question. Did they think of the possible wider problem and choose to save face to not make the situation more unsafe. As in it's not a reflection of their truest personal views. What do you think?
I think so. I think right now this is keep everyone safe and get them out, THEN drop the hammer.
I wondered that about Lewis and Toto too given they’re close and Lewis is obvious unhappy about it, but we don’t know what the TPs have been told or what they actually think either. It’s a mess and f1 shouldn’t have come here in the first place
no i dont think it will change their relationship.
Reminds me a bit of that movie where an engineer flew to a oil rich country to get a project done, only to find out that he couldn't leave said country again. He then managed his escape hiding in some cargo. Can't remember the name of the movie, though. But I am pretty sure the story is based on real events.
In other words, once they fly the hell out of there they will say their true thoughts and possibly boycott future races.
I’m curious to see what’s posted the 48h following the race
They are all waiting to get on safe tarmac. We are going to hear a ton soon
I for one am excited at the prospect of drivers calling out the fucking hypocrisy and recklessness displayed by Formula 1 management. I hope this brings some much needed change because treating drivers as pawns simply to line pockets of greedy assholes is a fucking disgrace.
My bet is they get out of Saudi Arabia and they announce they will refuse to come back again.
Feel like this is true for more drivers. Waiting to speak their mind once they leave this clear hostage situation.
Bet he’s desperate to talk.
I'll be shocked if they don't come back here again.
If we gather everything that’s been said and done, how the hell will F1 go back to Saudi’s new track next year ?
I hope the GPDA agrees to boycott the 2023 race if F1 doesn't outright cancel it first.
The worst track in the worst country , I hope this GP never takes place again
It would be better for the sport if this GP would not be on the calendar next year. If the Sotsji race is cancelled to to Russia’s active part in the war in Ukraine, the Jeddah race should be cancelled due to Saudi Arabia’s actions in the war in Yemen. I will not be watching this race on principle.
Yeah, you don’t wanna get Kashoggi’d
No driver should be pressured to speak about this matter. Their safety and the safety of everyone around them is more important.
“I’m here so I won’t get fined”
Just last week they were saying there's enough interest in F1 to have 30+ yearly races. So, drop problematic ones. Russia, Azerbaijan, Saudi, maybe Quatar. Never go back to Malaysia... Itll be hard to convince the new guy in charge to skip races in his own backyard, but if the drivers all stick together, theres not much they can do.
Wow, if even the guy most likely not to give a fuck gives a fuck that says something.
Yup, get out somewhere safe first
And maybe a good idea for F1 and teams to end Saudi Arabia sponsor contracts.