Does a Russian Grand Prix make Sense?

"Jonathon Klein" (jonathon-klein) 05/05/2014 at 19:34 • Filed to: Formula 1, Russia

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With the current Crimean crisis, you know Russia being Russia and invading countries and stuff, many have wondered if this year's inaugural Russian Grand Prix will actually happen. As of right now it is still on the calendar, although it still has a provisional mark associated with it. Leading many to wonder if it's a good idea or even feasible to hold the race this year in Russia. The race is set to take place in Sochi, the same city where the Olympics were just held. And as you all can remember that went off without a hitch, so long as you don't count packs of wolves, exploding water mains, lack of snow for the Winter Olympics, and possibly dropping to your death from exposed manholes. Yeah that went perfectly!

However, the current suggestion of having the race not take place isn't concerned with the possibility of the drivers being eaten by wolves. Rather it comes from the current state of Russia's foreign affairs. With so many of the world's nations imposing sanctions and embargoes on Russia, it might be impossible to actually hold the race there. In previous years, we have seen Formula 1 go to some areas of the world that are quite tense, Bahrain for example. But Russia poses a greater problem in that many sponsors of the race could possibly back out due to restrictions imposed by their countries of origin. Russian sponsors are also feeling the weight of their government's sanctions, the Sauber test driver Sergey Sirotkin lost his sponsorship due to the sponsor's frozen bank accounts because of their ties to Putin.

( He even looks sad! )

What also is concerning is the current images coming out of Sochi once again, just like the Olympics Sochi doesn't appear to be ready to take on the circus of a Formula 1 race. In fact if Google Satellite imagery is to be believed, it looks as if the entire Olympic park is now in greater shambles than it already was during the Olympics. Being in downtown Austin during the race last year, shows us American's how big of a circus a Formula 1 race actually is, and with so much left to do and fix up, Russia doesn't look like they will be able to get it done. Both the Formula 1 management and teams will not put up with these types of situations. The Russian Grand Prix is still months away, and the crisis could be over by then with one or more of the sides coming to the table. But with Putin's track record of hard lining the other side and his penchant for taking parts of other countries, see Georgia in 2008, I am not so sure that this race will actually happen. In light of the Russian GP not being likely to happen, can I interest Mr Todt, and Mr Ecclestone in some prime real estate on the East Coast of the United States? In fact it would be perfect because it would set the teams up ready to go for Austin two weeks after! America is more stable then Russia, and New York could pull together something real quick!

You can find me here on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

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Photo Credit to F1fanatic.

AthomSfere > Jonathon Klein 05/05/2014 at 19:44

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I'd say don't do it on principle. I was liking Putin somewhat until he went extra nutso.

Bad Idea Hat > AthomSfere 05/05/2014 at 19:49

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Principle? In F1? Surely you jest. If F1 had any principle, Bahrain would be out of the Grand Prix business.

edit - At the very least.

AthomSfere > Bad Idea Hat 05/05/2014 at 19:52

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It's never too late to start and have a first though...

But with politics... there is no hard lines or even good politics / rights etc..

Pitchblende > Jonathon Klein 05/05/2014 at 19:54

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If they are going to have problems shipping the cars in and out of the country due to sanctions then the teams will put the pressure to forgo the race. Will I miss seeing the cars run around a circuit that (on paper) does not add anything new and does not excite me at all? Nope, I'd much rather the sport kept out of politics.

desertdog5051 > Jonathon Klein 05/05/2014 at 20:03

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I think that most countries are not in favor of the GP. However, the Eastern European countries are so tied to, and depend on the trade with Russia that they are between the rock and the hard place. What the western European countries do is also influenced by Russia, though to a lesser degree. It will probably proceed.

Bad Idea Hat > AthomSfere 05/05/2014 at 20:03

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Both good points, but it's a given that (fuck you) Bernie and FIA only really care about the monetary factor.

I wish they didn't, or really didn't have to to be more correct.

AthomSfere > Bad Idea Hat 05/05/2014 at 20:11

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Agreed, but all it takes to end it is the fans tuning out those races 100%.

Ideally, everyone just gets along... but realistically we can use money against the operators. If enough events start pulling out of Russia we might see change slowly.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Jonathon Klein 05/05/2014 at 20:41

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A vast majority of me says that this race needs to not happen, but a tiny little part of my brain say, "Please let this race happen just for my Formula Oppo picture of it."

Jonathon Klein > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 05/05/2014 at 20:57

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I would like it to happen purely based on wanting to have another street track, but at the same time I really could go both ways, it doesn't really matter.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Jonathon Klein 05/05/2014 at 21:07

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As a person of Ukrainian decent, fuck Putin.

Jonathon Klein > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 05/05/2014 at 21:13

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I'm in a Facebook argument with two people that are pro at the moment? I did a lot of research on the entire region while doing my dissertation and didn't think anyone "really" liked Putin or his way of doing things. Obviously there are some.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Jonathon Klein 05/05/2014 at 21:20

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1/4th of Americans are retards

Jonathon Klein > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 05/05/2014 at 21:23

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Agreed.

German2207 > Jonathon Klein 05/06/2014 at 10:10

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I stand by my word. This article is written in the biased fashion, so it has no credibility. This is journalism, Jonathon. When you touch on politics, you have to kick the bias away.

Jonathon Klein > German2207 05/06/2014 at 10:15

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I've reread this piece a few times, the only thing that is more opinion based is when I talk about Putin's track record, and even that isn't much of an opinion, but everything else isn't. You had journalists and athletes posting all the pictures from Sochi of all the issues they were encountering. But everything else I am just reporting on, the original sources talk about Sirotkins financial backers pulling out because of the sanctions. And I even say that it could still happen if the conflict ends if a negotiation happens. I'm not sure at what you see as real bias?

kniga > Jonathon Klein 05/07/2014 at 19:57

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There are a few other things that are opinion based. For example, if you use Google earth to judge the track readiness, may be you should omit that speculation. Despite some embarrassing incidents with street dogs, and perhaps unfinished rooms in some of hotels, the Olympics did go very well. It was amazing stuff. A real sports history was made, but people with no interest in sports and big interest in information war continued reporting only on embarrassing incidents rather on the real sports news. But then again, American cable news reports ANY news at all only when there is a scandal and drama.

As for having snow, the mountains next to Sochi are great for skiing and there is frequently plenty of fresh snow. The issue is that you can't always count of having nice fresh snow-pack at the moment you need. I remember visiting Crested Butte, Colorado in January (a very good ski area) and being disappointed with the snow pack (some areas were closed for the lack of snow). And so this sort of thing just happening during the Olympics in sochi. The funny thing is two weeks later, during the paralympic events they had an amazingly good snowfall. Visibility was bad and some events had to be postponed because of bad weather.

I do agree that the politics of that area are very unstable. I was born in ex-USSR, and I know the politics and the situation around Russian North Caucasus and Georgia very well. To be honest, I was a little surprised they granted Sochi the right to hold winter games, and in fact this was even before 2008 South Ossetia war. I always kept thinking that something politically nasty is going to happen in that area. You have two frozen conflicts there, Ossetia and Abkhazia (just miles away from Sochi), and an Islamic insurgency in the north caucasus, and specially east (Sochi area is its western tip).