Formula 1 drivers convinced to carry on racing after threatening boycott

JEDDA, Saudia Arabia, Mar 26 – According to reports, a “significant” number of F1 drivers were concerned about their safety following Friday’s missile attack not far from the Jeddah circuit being used for this weekend’s Saudi Arabian GP.

While Toto Wolff revealed yesterday that all of the team bosses were in agreement that the race should continue despite the attack at a nearby oil facility, the drivers were a lot less convinced and threatened to boycott the event.

BBC Sport reports that a meeting with the drivers lasted nearly four hours before they eventually emerged and agreed to race on.

The drivers met with F1 president Stefano Domenicali and managing director Ross Brawn about an hour after the end of second practice, which had been delayed by 15 minutes due to the nearby attack.

After hearing all the information from the relevant authorities, they agreed to carry on racing.

According to the report, part of this information involved the “possible consequences of not racing, such as how easily teams and drivers would be able to leave the country if the race did not happen.”

The drivers’ scheduled media commitments were cancelled on Friday night, however, and Wolff hinted that not all the drivers felt the race should still be staged. When asked if it was a unanimous agreement, he tellingly replied: “Between the team principals, yes.”

Britain’s former F1 world champion Damon Hill expressed his concern about the decision to press on with the race weekend, however, tweeting: “How incongruous is this? Nothing to be alarmed about. Race on. Will be interesting to see how this is dealt with. F1 literally playing with fire.”