Sebastian Vettel has said he will not race in the Russian Grand Prix if Formula 1 still visits there later in the year, following the countries invasion of Ukraine.
F1 said today that it was monitoring the situation after Russia commenced a major military assault on Ukraine on Thursday morning after months of tension building.
It has been reported that UEFA plans to strip St Petersburg of the Champions League final in June in reaction to the invasion, an has put F1’s plans for the grand prix in Sochi in the limelight.
The four-time world champion is a GPDA director and has been one of the grids most vocal figures on social matters and human rights in recent years, while Vettel said he could not speak on behalf of the GPDA as the drivers had not discussed the issue yet, he revealed that his own mind was already made up and would not race in Russia.
“In my personal opinion, obviously I woke up again after this morning’s news, shocked” Vettel said. “I think it’s horrible to see what is happening. Obviously if you look at the calendar, we have a race scheduled in Russia. For myself, my own opinion is I should not go, I will not go. I think it’s wrong to race in that country. I’m sorry for the people, innocent people who are losing their lives, getting killed for stupid reasons under a very strange and mad leadership. I’m sure it’s something we will talk about, but as I said as GPDA, we haven’t come together yet.”
Max Verstappen also added: “When a country is at war, it is not right to race there.”
My Opinion-
First of all round of applause to Seb and Max, I completely agree with what both have said, and I think some other drivers will agree too. It will be interesting to see what the drivers association will say when they come together.
For F1 to say they are ‘monitoring’ the situation closely I find wrong, its a simple yes or no if they are going to race there or not, they have plenty of time to find a replacement as it set to be in September.
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