Russian Grand Prix Off the Grid, At Least For Now

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

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]

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • Macmcmacmac Macmcmacmac on Feb 28, 2022

    If you had "gone in" to Ukraine it would have been nuclear from the get go. Face it, Putin has all the aces this time. If the Russians had been given the minimal security guarantees they sought none of this would be happening. Ukraine discussing acquiring nukes was the trigger. The Chernobyl RBMK was designed to produce weapons grade plutonium. At the very least enough waste was probably available to make some dirty bombs. There is also a natural reluctance to stir up the fallout still in the ground with munitions.

  • Arthur Dailey Arthur Dailey on Feb 28, 2022

    As some have noted, I have long believed that there were more than one Slavutas based on how at different times the grammar, syntax, vocabulary and yes the 'back stories' posted under that user name have differed. Yes, the governments/leaders of the USA instead of 'assisting' Russia when the Soviet Empire collapsed and treating Russia as an 'equal' instead treated Russia like a defeated enemy. They disregarded the almost pathological fear that Russians have of invasion from the West, and their centuries long obsession with 'dominating' the other Slavic nations. We know that Putin views the fall of the Soviet Empire as the greatest disaster in modern history. And that he sought to restore it. Russia is an economic pygmy. Despite its size and resources its GDP is roughly equivalent to Spain. The standard of living and life expectancy in Russia is that of a 2nd world nation. So the Russian government tries to offset this with tales of Russian military might and how other nations are 'scared' of Mother Russia. Due to its nuclear arsenal Russia demands respect as a 'super power' despite its economic weakness. Putin has gone to the Dictators Handbook using the old Sudetenland tactic. As a student of history he knows that Russia has used dissent in the west to invade its neighbours. Suez/Hungary. 1968 riots & assassinations/Czechoslovakia. Iran Hostages/Afghanistan. Putin was afraid that as Ukraine 'westernized' it would serve as an example to the citizens of Russia and demonstrate that rather than being indispensable the 'strong man' actually harms the nation by restricting freedoms and enriching himself, his family and his cronies at the expense of the general population. That the nation and its people become nothing but pawns for his ego. And now he has threated global nuclear war rather than 'looking weak'. The importance of a free media, independent judiciary, and a legal political opposition have been demonstrated in Russia. Notice how quickly and violently protesters have been dealt with. How the Russian media has been told what to say. And how Putin has lied about historical fact. What the events of the past week also demonstrates is that Russian 'troll farms' have been impacting the conversation on much of social media. And that a great many have been deluded/corrupted by this campaign of misinformation. Ukraine will unfortunately once again be sacrificed. Found not worth a global nuclear war. Its leader will probably perish or be imprisoned. While the 'strong man' Putin remains safe in Moscow and distanced from others for fear of the same virus that his troll farms keep repeating never existed.

    • Lou_BC Lou_BC on Feb 28, 2022

      They have AI that can decipher who's behind posts. 2 separate research groups identified 2 people who created Q Anon based upon writing styles. It's like fingerprints.

  • FreedMike FreedMike on Mar 01, 2022

    @Arthur: "They disregarded the almost pathological fear that Russians have of invasion from the West..." That's the problem - the fear IS pathological, and it's completely irrational. What, Germany's going to restage Operation Barbarossa? Whatever. If "the West" - meaning, the U.S. - had wanted to invade Russia, then there was a perfect opportunity to do so - 77 years ago, in 1945, when they had a massive army at the ready in Germany, and a little thing called the "A-bomb". It didn't happen then because the U.S. had no desire to take over Russia. It still doesn't.

    • Lou_BC Lou_BC on Mar 01, 2022

      The USSR and communism was a convenient foil for the USA. They used them as an excuse to set up bases all over the world and meddle in the affairs of multiple nations all to enhance US interests. The risk Russia now poses is in Putin's wet dream of recreating the USSR. If he didn't have nukes he'd already have been blown off the face of the earth by western nations. He wants Ukraine and Crimea for access to an all season more southern Ocean Port.

  • ToolGuy ToolGuy on Aug 16, 2022

    "We’ll see what happens with Haas." I wonder what happened with Haas?


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