Saudi Arabia’s sports minister, Prince Abdulaziz Bin Turki Al-Faisal, said he had met Formula 1 teams and drivers to try to assuage concerns about next year’s race safety. in Jeddah.
F1 drivers almost boycotted This year’s event in March following a missile attack on a nearby oil depot raised security concerns.
The attack came five days before a ceasefire between the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, who claimed responsibility for the Jeddah attack, and a Saudi-led coalition supporting the Yemeni government.
However, the ceasefire in Yemen lapsed on Sunday, raising fears of a return of violence in the region.
Prince Abdulaziz said he met key figures in F1, including drivers, after this year’s race to address concerns about race safety in Saudi Arabia – the Saudi version 2023 will take place on March 19.
“We are working with F1 to make sure that any concerns any driver, team or individual, even fans, we make sure we respond to those concerns. mind,” he told a small group of reporters in Singapore last weekend. “We know it’s safe, but we need to explain what measures have been taken.
“More than 4,000 troops were deployed in that event [this year] Just to be sure, because when these things happen, you’re afraid people who want to aggravate this will get in trouble, so we just make sure no one compromises the safety of the event. and city. For us, safety and security is even bigger than Formula 1, it’s about one country, so that’s our number 1 priority.
“We’ve met personally with all the team principals and I’ve personally met with all the drivers. We’ve talked about all these issues and we’ve had an open dialogue with them right away. now. officials, directly on these matters. I hope it will continue as a ceasefire and nothing will happen at the next event.”
When asked what the drivers had raised, Prince Abdulaziz added: “Really, most of the concerns are about security. It was a scary event.
“I was on the plane when it happened, so I had to divert to Medina airport, then fly back to Jeddah and directly to the track to talk to the drivers. So that’s not it. is a perfect script to start your weekend.
“But we have to learn from these situations. If you see the world today, it can happen anywhere, and if we don’t unite, let’s work together to make it an example.” Better example that we can actually make something good out of this then I think that’s something we all knowingly agree to move forward.
“We know that we have some concerns about some issues. We are not perfect and we have never claimed that we are but at least we are learning from our experience. and we are taking action to make it better in the future.”
Prince Abdulaziz stressed that the area around the track and the city is guaranteed to be safe for the duration of the event and that the same measures will be in place for next year’s race.
“It’s not the first time it’s happened in Saudi Arabia. It happened that weekend but we have it almost every month.
“My experience and our experience in this that we haven’t had any casualties so far, fortunately. That shows you that the level of security is high. Mostly areas are areas. it didn’t happen, I know it happened close by, but it’s not non-airport, it’s kind of farther away than where there’s population or activity going on.
“You can’t cover the whole kingdom and say no, nothing will happen. But you make sure the most important areas are populated and populated with more people and that’s what we’ve got. Because So the city is safe, the location is safe. But I think we also learn from other experiences. So we share information with the person responsible for security in F1.”
