The 2021 F1 season will conclude with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. However, there’s a rumour that some of F1 fans are not happy about Saudi Arabia being on the F1 calendar.
Speaking to media, Prince Khalid Bin Sultan Al Faisal, president of the Saudi Arabian motorsport federation said he is well aware that some are unhappy about the country joining the F1 schedule.
“I don’t blame them, when you don’t know a country, and when you have a certain image of a country.” Khalid said.
“I remember myself when my parents used to tell me we’re going to go to the US, especially to New York, I was frightened. I would think that I’m going to walk in the street and somebody will come and shoot me, because I’d never been there.
“So I know why they’re not excited about it, because of a lot of issues with the human rights, and because they’ve never been to Saudi.
“So that’s why, now for us opening up, and hopefully with people coming in Saudi Arabia, seeing the country, and then going back and reporting what they saw, this will make maybe people change their mind.” Khalid added.
There had been similar resistance prior to motorsport events like Dakar and Formula E being hosted there, but Khalid admitted feelings changed once people saw it first hand.
“This happened to us with Dakar, we had a lot of people about 3000 participants and drivers came,” Khalid said.
“Most of them, they had the same impression, and they were not happy. Even with Formula E, like BMW and other teams, they said, they didn’t want to go to Saudi Arabia. But after they came to Saudi Arabia, and after they saw us and met us, they changed their perspective about Saudi Arabia.
“This is one of the issues and why we had this bad image, because we were closed, our country was closed. So part of the vision and part of opening up our country, we would like people to come and see who we really are.
“We don’t have anything to hide. If we wanted to sportswash our image or something, then we will close our country because we will not let you come and see and meet with our people.” Khalid added.
