'The karting scene and the sports scene in Saudi is developing, and especially for women. Girls are more courageous to speak up and say I want to go karting, I want to go racing, which is great.'
'Believed used during Schumacher's early career racing karts and possibly for DTM in 1991, with sponsors stickers later applied to resemble Schumacher's first Benetton season helmet, offered with the original karting visor, chips and marks from use.'
Hyundai Motorsport technical director Francois-Xavier Demaison: 'The I4 engine is a very, very sophisticated, very efficient engine. It’s a proper race engine, so it’s a very good base for developing an engine for WEC. Rallying is a sort of endurance race, so for an engine to the 24 Hours of Le Mans it’s a good place to start from.'
'The best we can figure at the moment is that with the new (larger diameter) steering wheel, and a slightly different seating position, that he hit the buckle in the (turn 11) hairpin, as simple as that. That’s what he’s believing.'
'A replacement driver will only be considered if the primary (entered) driver also is participating in another marquee event with the driver’s principal racing series on Indianapolis 500 race day.'
'During the Formula 1 British Grand Prix weekend the Silverstone heliport becomes the busiest airspace in Europe and, this July, will welcome more than 6,000 passengers on over 1,500 flights. The Silverstone heliport will feature a brand new bespoke terminal that provides over 8,500 square feet of covered space to further enhance the customer experience.'
Here is your Weather Forecast ahead of the 2025 #SaudiArabianGP, provided by Meteo France
Friday ⬇️ Plenty of sunshine. Temperatures still depends of the seabreeze. Light northwesterly wind with gusts up to 30-35 kph, decreasing for FP2.
Would Vettel recognise he’s being used for Saudi sportswashing?
Never liked Vettel much when he still raced, but it improved later on for me.
This however does not reflect very well on him – and his intelligence, I’m sorry to say.
CC, I disagree that this is sports washing. It was less than 10 years ago that women were not allowed in sports stadiums at all in Saudi. They couldn’t compete in a stadium, they couldn’t be spectator in a stadium, they couldn’t even be a hot dog seller. Saudi is slowly changing its attitudes to women, and a key part of changing attitudes is making women more visible in sport, showing that they too are cometent and skilled individuals, and if Vettel is achieving that, I applaud him.
They’re only allowed to now if their male guardians (waali) allow it. There are no free women in Saudi Arabia. If they do advocate for their rights they are likely to be flogged and imprisoned. But I think the sportswashing comment is more about diminishing Vettel than Saudi Arabia’s egregious human rights attitudes.
Women are literally slaves in that country. And if there was a genuine intention to change that, I don’t see how they can justify doing it (very) gradually.
Yay now they can drive. Well, they can’t do anything if their husband/a male relative in charge doesn’t allow it. They are literally someone’s ownership.
Oh, and the de facto ruler is an “alledged” killer (but he did invest in USA, so it was fine). SA is such a heaven on Earth indeed.
Dex, thank you for engaging in a sensible discussion on this and making well thought points. I’m not defending Saudi’s record on human rights in any way and I totally agree with you that women have it very bad there and it needs to change. There are a lot of countries on the calendar where F1 could be described as sports-washing, adding legitimacy to the regime and giving them propaganda victories on the world stage. However, there is also an argument that exposing the people of those countries to international sports and values helps educate them in the wider world, helps them see the diversity of the human race and that it is possible to live in harmony, that black can compete alongside white, that different religions to your own are not as evil and barbaric as you were taught, that women are not inferior creatures and chattel. We can see from North Korea that isolation achieves nothing in changing society values.
> And if there was a genuine intention to change that,
> I don’t see how they can justify doing it (very) gradually.
I don’t think the Saudi regime is trying to justify a change, gradual or otherwise. This is individuals trying to bring about change. Totalitarian regimes dehumanise sections of society, e.g. by accusing immigrants of eating the cats, eating the dogs. It is much easier to oppress a group of people if you see them as different to you and cannot empathise with them. If Vettel is getting women on TV in sport, people throughout the country will be interested, they’ll start to see people with personalities, people just like them, instead of seeing mere women. If you want a fairer society, you have to change the attitudes of society.
For all the people who are dismissive of what Vettel is doing, I have a couple of questions. Firstly, regardless of what you think his personal motives might be, do you think Saudi women will be in any way worse off as a result? Unless you can show what harm it might do, how can you object to him trying?
The second question is that if you agree with the motive but think this is too slow a process, what alternative do you suggest? Threaten them with economic sanctions and tariffs? Bomb them? Hold a protest outside the embassy in London? If there is an answer, I’d love to hear it.
Reuters: So, the 2025 Saudi Arabian GP becomes another post-2022 round for Seb to attend.
I think the fifth overall, followed by the 2023 Monaco, 2023 Japanese, 2024 British, & 2024 Sao Paulo GPs.
RaceFans.net tweet: I like the selfies they took with his cellphone.
Coventry Climax
18th April 2025, 0:57
Would Vettel recognise he’s being used for Saudi sportswashing?
Never liked Vettel much when he still raced, but it improved later on for me.
This however does not reflect very well on him – and his intelligence, I’m sorry to say.
AlanD
18th April 2025, 1:19
CC, I disagree that this is sports washing. It was less than 10 years ago that women were not allowed in sports stadiums at all in Saudi. They couldn’t compete in a stadium, they couldn’t be spectator in a stadium, they couldn’t even be a hot dog seller. Saudi is slowly changing its attitudes to women, and a key part of changing attitudes is making women more visible in sport, showing that they too are cometent and skilled individuals, and if Vettel is achieving that, I applaud him.
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
18th April 2025, 1:27
They’re only allowed to now if their male guardians (waali) allow it. There are no free women in Saudi Arabia. If they do advocate for their rights they are likely to be flogged and imprisoned. But I think the sportswashing comment is more about diminishing Vettel than Saudi Arabia’s egregious human rights attitudes.
Dex
18th April 2025, 3:06
Women are literally slaves in that country. And if there was a genuine intention to change that, I don’t see how they can justify doing it (very) gradually.
Yay now they can drive. Well, they can’t do anything if their husband/a male relative in charge doesn’t allow it. They are literally someone’s ownership.
Oh, and the de facto ruler is an “alledged” killer (but he did invest in USA, so it was fine). SA is such a heaven on Earth indeed.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
18th April 2025, 3:42
It’s impressive that there’s countries that are so far behind with human rights.
S Arkazam
18th April 2025, 10:02
So impressive indeed that some other countries are rushing to achieve the same, many of tjose even with a democratically chosen government.
AlanD
18th April 2025, 14:16
Dex, thank you for engaging in a sensible discussion on this and making well thought points. I’m not defending Saudi’s record on human rights in any way and I totally agree with you that women have it very bad there and it needs to change. There are a lot of countries on the calendar where F1 could be described as sports-washing, adding legitimacy to the regime and giving them propaganda victories on the world stage. However, there is also an argument that exposing the people of those countries to international sports and values helps educate them in the wider world, helps them see the diversity of the human race and that it is possible to live in harmony, that black can compete alongside white, that different religions to your own are not as evil and barbaric as you were taught, that women are not inferior creatures and chattel. We can see from North Korea that isolation achieves nothing in changing society values.
> And if there was a genuine intention to change that,
> I don’t see how they can justify doing it (very) gradually.
I don’t think the Saudi regime is trying to justify a change, gradual or otherwise. This is individuals trying to bring about change. Totalitarian regimes dehumanise sections of society, e.g. by accusing immigrants of eating the cats, eating the dogs. It is much easier to oppress a group of people if you see them as different to you and cannot empathise with them. If Vettel is getting women on TV in sport, people throughout the country will be interested, they’ll start to see people with personalities, people just like them, instead of seeing mere women. If you want a fairer society, you have to change the attitudes of society.
For all the people who are dismissive of what Vettel is doing, I have a couple of questions. Firstly, regardless of what you think his personal motives might be, do you think Saudi women will be in any way worse off as a result? Unless you can show what harm it might do, how can you object to him trying?
The second question is that if you agree with the motive but think this is too slow a process, what alternative do you suggest? Threaten them with economic sanctions and tariffs? Bomb them? Hold a protest outside the embassy in London? If there is an answer, I’d love to hear it.
rob91
18th April 2025, 12:29
Your comment says a lot about you, and it’s bad news.
Steven Williamson
18th April 2025, 5:32
Rocketpoweredmohawk just released a new YT video very supportive of women in racing. Progress!
AlanD
18th April 2025, 14:28
I went to find the video and made the mistake of watching it. I won’t watching any more of his content.
Jere (@jerejj)
18th April 2025, 6:27
COTD is spot-on.
Reuters: So, the 2025 Saudi Arabian GP becomes another post-2022 round for Seb to attend.
I think the fifth overall, followed by the 2023 Monaco, 2023 Japanese, 2024 British, & 2024 Sao Paulo GPs.
RaceFans.net tweet: I like the selfies they took with his cellphone.