The celebration of the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix of Formula 1 began to be in danger after a missile hit one of the infrastructures of the local oil company Aramco.
The first few minutes were chaos, since little was known about what had happened just 16 kilometers from the circuit where the first free practice session of the Great Circus was being held in Jeddah, but the Saudi authorities indicated that a radical Hautian organization was the protagonist of the terrorist attack.
For this reason, F1 held an emergency meeting to discuss what would happen to the event in Arab lands, but it all ended with the 15-minute delay of the second practice session to the disbelief of many. The pilots returned to the track to roll with their single-seaters at more than 300 km/h, brushing against the walls, although the category reported that they would hold another meeting at 10:00 p.m. local time (8:00 p.m. Spanish peninsular time) to reach a decision. about the grand prize dispute.
Following discussion with team bosses and organisers, F1 decided to go ahead with holding the event in Saudi Arabia, with the cars returning to tarmac for final practice and qualifying on Saturday.
This was confirmed by the CEO of the category, Stefano Domenicali , who explained that the weekend would pass normally despite the attacks a few kilometers from the Jeddah urban track.
“We have received full guarantees that, for the country, security comes first, no matter the situation, security has to be guaranteed,” the Italian commented. “They [local officials] are here with their families, on the track, so they have all the systems in place to protect this area, the city and the places we go to.”
“So we feel safe and we have to trust the local authorities. So of course we will go ahead with the event,” Domenicali said.
The president of the FIA, Ben Sulayem , for his part, added that the risks of the event being attacked by the Hautis were minimal because they were not targeting civilians: “We have had meetings with the head of security, with the directors of the teams and with the drivers”.
“And who are they targeting? They are targeting the infrastructure, not the civilians and the track,” revealed the head of world motorsports. “Of course, we have checked the facts and we have been assured that this is a safe place, that everything will be safe and that we will continue to race.”
“Surely all their families are here. We only look forward, but with the certainty that nothing is going to happen,” said Sulayem.
Some of the top managers of the teams on the grid spoke out after the meeting, such as Red Bull’s Christian Horner , who indicated that F1 should continue to hold the test as a show of unity.
“I think the sport has to stay together, any act of terrorism cannot be forgiven, and we cannot be intimidated by a situation like that, it is not acceptable,” he said. “Stefano [Domenicali] and the president are taking care of it, and the organizers have given us all the guarantees, we are going to race.”
Another of those who spoke was the boss of Mercedes, Toto Wolff : “It was a good meeting, the drivers are going to speak now in the meeting with the leaders of the teams and they have assured us that we are protected here. This is probably the place safest you can be in Saudi Arabia right now, that’s why we’re running.”
