The fire was still visible from afar on Saturday night. The Houthi rebels fired a rocket into an oil factory belonging to Formula 1’s main sponsor Aramco, and a cloud of smoke hung over the city of Jeddah for hours. Suddenly, the conflict Saudi Arabia is waging against rebels in neighboring Yemen has come very close.
The shock was great, the discussions were intense. Organizers quickly ensured that track safety was assured and that the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix would take place on Sunday (7pm CEST/live ServusTV, Sky) as scheduled. On Saturday, the GPDA drivers’ union also reaffirmed its willingness to participate in the race, even though it was difficult to “eliminate all natural human concerns when you saw the smoke from the incident”.
For the first time, the discussion was not about tire choice, power advantages or aerodynamics, but about the reliability of the missile defense system.