With the Saudi Arabian GP set to take place despite the missile attack in Jeddah, sportwashing has dominated the pre-race talk
The show, it seems, must go on as Formula One once more contorts itself to ensure Saudi Arabia enjoys its day in the sun, missile attacks notwithstanding. The evidence of Friday’s explosion, less than 10 miles from the circuit in Jeddah, is still writ large. The pall of black smoke hangs across the city, a suitably indelible stain on the regime’s latest attempt at sportswashing.
As things stand the race will go ahead on Sunday after Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck an oil facility with a missile. The harsh truth of the Saudi-led coalition’s war with the rebels burst F1’s bubble of belief that they operate in a vacuum where sport and politics simply do not mix.