F1 has released a generic statement regarding the political situation around Russia and Ukraine which puts Russian GP in danger.
The escalation of the fight between Russia and Ukraine in recent days has quickly put Russian GP in danger of happening later this year at Sochi. Separately, fans on social media are pushing F1 and the FIA to already cancel the grand prix.
The Russian GP is scheduled to take place in September with Sochi Autodrom to host its final grand prix before the F1 race switches to a different venue at St. Petersburg. For now, the race hasn’t been cancelled with the sport monitoring the changing situation.
“F1 is closely watching the very fluid developments like many others and at this time has no further comment on the race scheduled for September. We will continue to monitor the situation very closely,” said a statement.
There is a growing speculation that F1 is keeping Turkey on standby if the Russian GP is axed from the 2022 calendar. While it is not certain if the tickets were on sale, but for now no tickets are being sold for the Sochi event. It is also unclear if they started selling Turkish GP tickets, as photos surfaced of the same.
Russian F1 driver, Nikita Mazepin, meanwhile is confident that the grand prix will go ahead. “From the understanding that we’ve had with Formula 1 the race is going ahead and you will surely see me there,” he said to Sky Sports F1. “I have always been a big support of sport without politics. Today I am in Barcelona.
“I cannot tell you the excitement of driving the new car and the excitement of actually being involved in the development of this new car, from seeing the pictures and then seeing it in physical, carbon copy of the pictures is great.”
For Haas, this political situation could be hurting considering that its major sponsor is Russian company Uralkali, which is owned by Mazepin’s father Dimtry. While Guenther Steiner is supposed to speak in the press conference later today, safe to say he will put out generic statements on the topic for now.
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