Russia invaded Ukraine this week, and the geopolitical situation is making it difficult to hold international sporting events in Russia, for reasons that should be obvious.
This means that the Russian Grand Prix has been dumped from the 2022 slate.
F1 organizers, the FIA, and race teams met and decided that as things stand now, it’s “impossible” to hold the race, though the door was left open for the event to take place if the situation changes.
The race isn’t scheduled to occur until late September, and it was slated to be run in Sochi. If the situation improves and the race still takes place, it will be one of 23 for F1 — a record.
This follows the news that Haas Racing has decided to remove the livery of its Russian sponsor, Uralkali, from its cars. Haas is also reviewing the sponsorship deal — and a major shareholder in Uralkali is helmed by the father of Haas driver Nikita Marzepin.
We’ll see what happens with Haas. As for us, well, we’re not geopolitical experts (except when it applies to this industry, of course), but given what we’ve seen in the news these past two days, we wouldn’t be booking race tickets and flights to Sochi in September.
[Image: Mikhail Kolesnikov/Shutterstock.com]
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