F2 bosses would “respect” drivers missing races over ethical concerns

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In the round-up: Formula 2 team bosses say that sport’s destinations should not be politically influenced but that they would respect drivers’ wishes to sit out a race.

In brief

Formula 2 team bosses argue sport should be separate from politics

Following the cancellation of the Russian Grand Prix, where Formula 2 was also due to race, team bosses said they would have respected a driver’s decision not to participate.

“I think we only have to respect the choice of the driver if he doesn’t want to to drive,” said François Sicard, of DAMS. “For me, we should separate this from the politics orientation, even when there are serious matters. But we should separate and we should keep the sport going on.”

Rob Niessink from Formula 2 newcomers Van Amersfoort Racing acknowledged that “we all understand that we’re living in a horrible era now” and said that the team wished “all the best” to those suffering. However, since the FIA motion to cancel the Russian Grand Prix by force majeure he said “It seems for us at this moment, it’s not relevant.”

“If we concentrate and focus on the sport, that’s already difficult enough,” he continued. “Politics is something we, as sport, should keep a sort of neutral position [on] as much as possible and focus on helping young kids that need our support. And we do what we need to do and wish the rest of the world all the best.”

Trevor Carlin said “it is very tricky for us, as it’s very tricky for everybody involved from our side” but confirmed “if a race meeting is going on and we are entered to it, we will go.”

“If our drivers choose not to go, we would totally respect that and we wouldn’t run their car,” he explained. Carlin said he hoped for a quick resolution to the crisis in Ukraine and that “the world could start to get back to normal and these sort of conversations – hopefully we won’t be having them for a long time.”

Daruvala fastest on first day of Formula 2 testing

Jehan Daruvala has put in the fastest lap time on day one of Formula 2’s pre-season test in Bahrain. Formula 2 and 3 are holding separate sessions over the course of the three-day test, each running for half of the afternoon and half of the evening session in Sakhir.

Daruvala’s 1’42.074 was set in the evening session, beating second-fastest Calan Williams’s 1’42.590 by more than half a second.

Maloney tops Formula 3 times after day one in Bahrain

After running half-sessions, alternated with Formula 2, for the first day of Bahrain testing it was rookie Zane Maloney on top of the times for Carlin. Maloney’s best lap was a 1’47.614, set during the later session when track temperatures are cooler as the circuit heads into dusk.

Fellow rookie William Alatalo was second fastest on 1’47.783 for Jenzer and returning driver Jak Crawford third-fastest for Prema, setting a 1’47.799, both also during the afternoon session.

W Series first day of testing goes ahead at Barcelona-Catalunya

Of the 10 teams in the series, Jamie Chadwick, Abbi Pulling, Marta Garcia, Nerea Marti, Jessica Hawkins, Bruna Tomaselli, Lena Buhler, Emely de Haus, Megan Gilkes and Tereza Babickova ran the first test day and will continue tomorrow morning, before switching to the other half of the 20 confirmed test drivers from the afternoon session onwards. The majority of the 20 drivers at the Barcelona test are not confirmed for a 2022 race seat yet.

2021 and 2019 runner-up Alice Powell, who returns to W Series this year but did not run during the first day of testing said she had fond memories of the track. “I’ve raced here before, in 2012 – I had a really good result here, from 26th to 11th in GP3 so I like the circuit, good track. I’m looking forward to getting out on track tomorrow afternoon.”

Powell, the first and one of only two women to score points in GP3, has moved to newly-formed W Series team BSM. “I’ve known them for a little while, my first big sponsor when I moved into cars in 2008 in Ginetta Juniors so really nice to be back partnered with them and looking forward to hopefully having a good year with them.”

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Comment of the day

With Max Verstappen tipped for a new, extremely lucrative and very lengthy contract at Red Bull, Sjaakfoo asks what motivation the current world champion could possibly have to move elsewhere?

Makes sense, no reason to move if you’re happy in the team and happy with the people involved. I’m sure he’ll have some performance clauses in there if need be, he’ll also still will be only about 30 by the time this contract runs out.

Like, unless you have some childhood dreams about driving for a certain team (like Vettel and Ferrari), why move from a team that can give you a race and even championship winning car?
@sjaakfoo

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Seaney_T!

On this day in motorsport

The 2002 season got off with a bang as Ralf Schumacher launched his Williams off Rubens Barrichello’s Ferrari
  • 20 years ago today Michael Schumacher won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix after his team mate and his brother triggered a huge crash at the start

Author information

Hazel Southwell
Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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17 comments on “F2 bosses would “respect” drivers missing races over ethical concerns”

  1. Richard Childress in a call with reporters now says he was inspired by Ukrainian President Zelenskyy when he said “he didn’t want to leave, he just needed ammunition.”

    So Childress called Ammo Inc. and they are sending a million rounds over the next 2 days.

    This goes beyond crossing boundaries we don’t want politics in sport, and association with violence.
    Many just like the idea of shooting themselves out of a situation when a simple conversation might end it.

    1. The Dolphins
      3rd March 2022, 3:24

      Richard Childress is a gun nut and has been involved with the NRA in an executive capacity, obviously this would be his response. He does not subscribe to the belief that the pen is mightier than the sword.

      1. He’s misquoting Zelenskeyy anyway, who said he needed anti-tank missiles. Not ammo. So it’s a nice bit of promotion on the back of a terrible situation. That’s a cynical take on it anyway.

      2. @The Dolpins

        He does not subscribe to the belief that the pen is mightier than the sword.

        It isn’t. Our laws are ultimately enforced by people who will use violence to enforce it & the legitimacy of states rests in large part on their ability (or the ability of friendly nations like the US) to use violence against those who threaten the power of the state and the citizens within it.

        When the government fails at this, like in Iraq after the US destroyed the state and installed a government that couldn’t effectively use violence to enforce the new laws, you tend to see large-scale violence and people resorting to militias to defend themselves. They don’t resort to buying lots of pens…

        Your saying comes from a play, where it is attributed to Richelieu, but in reality he was hardly a pacifist. He personally commanded the siege of La Rochelle. Also, Richelieu was very effective in getting more tax revenue from the poor, while the rich were mostly exempt, to pay for the 30-year war. He violently suppressed the peasant revolts that resulted from that excessive taxation (and those peasants weren’t able to reduce the taxes with ‘the pen’ either).

        It’s interesting how this historical revisionism turned into a saying that people will use to make a point. It shows how truth is no match to what people want to be true. And you can only believe in it if you live in a society that is so surgical and restrained at using violence, that you can pretend that it’s completely unnecessary.

    2. This is the most NASCAR thing that has ever happened.

      1. @red-andy – if there is any justice here this will be COTD !

  2. F2 bosses making loads more sense than motorsport uk.

    1. Are they, even the International Paralympic Committee has changed its mind and now,

      athletes from Russia and Belarus will not be allowed to compete at the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing.

  3. I don’t buy the official F1 game to have to buy/collect pointless items or supercars.

    I buy the official F1 game to drive that seasons F1 cars around that seasons circuits.

    If i wanted to collect glasses, hats & stuff I’d play The Sims & if i wanted to collect & drive supercars I’d buy Gran Turismo or Forza.

    And of course i guess these things been ‘collectable’ will also mean loot boxes & microtransactions.

    1. I certainly don’t by racing games for a story mode so pleased to see they’re not bothering with one.

    2. Who is paying so their character wears sunglasses in a video game? Someone must, or else EA wouldn’t bother, they obviously think they’ve found a gap in the market. I don’t bother buying pricey real ones since I tend to loose them, sit on them, need to rush out the door and can’t find them. Occasionally I find a pair at the bottom of my bag. But not often. I don’t know what EA is charging for these micro-transactions but it’s probably more than Primark, and Primarks’ are real and work (kind of).

      1. @bernasaurus

        Plenty of people want to look nice, more than they want purely functionality. This is just as true in real life.

        I prefer pay to look good over pay to win games.

        A bigger issue is the gambling systems that are put into games, which exploit human weakness, when it comes to gambling.

  4. Maybe it’s time that those ethical choices don’t need to be made by the drivers in the first place, but by the FIA not going to these dictatorships or otherwise ethically limited countries in the first place.

    Demanding that a driver makes a choice between what is what is considered ethically correct in the West and it’s job, is in fact forcing drivers to do unethical things and in and off itself unethical.

    Western companies really need to start reassessing the limit on when they do business and what causes and effects that has, rather than only to think about the money…

    1. Exactly this. It’s a total joke of a thing to say by F2 bosses. Trying to put the issue onto a load of teenagers who are vying for every possible point.

      Rather than “respect their decision” if they said “if greater than 50% of drivers vote against a race on ethical grounds, then championship points will no longer be awarded for that race” then it would have a lot more weight.

  5. Adam Stern’s tweet: Interesting.

    Di Grassi’s writing is excellent.

    COTD: 100%.

    That infamous airborne image never gets old.

    1. Jonathan Parkin
      3rd March 2022, 11:23

      The first corner incident in 2002 gave me a bit of a jolt because I was worried someone was hurt bearing in mind what happened the previous year

Comments are closed.