G-Drive will not race in WEC or ELMS this season

It's through a long message posted on his Instagram account this Saturday that Roman Rusinov, driver and manager of the G-Drive Racing team, announced that he refused to sign the neutrality document requested by the FIA ​​in response to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia: “Today, I, the driver of the Russian G-Drive Racing team, refused to accept the discriminatory conditions of the FIA. The goal of every athlete is to hear their country's anthem on the podium. During more than 10 years of international experience, our team has done this many times. We raised the Russian flag, we heard and sang the Russian anthem. For the sake of my fans, for the sake of my teammates and of sporting honor, I will not sign this document. Better not to drive at all. » 

More than the driver, this also involves his entire team, initially engaged in WEC and ELMS this season : “The G-Drive Racing team has always been international: drivers, mechanics, engineers – they all come from different countries around the world. And if we asked everyone to give up their flag, experience and name, such sporting fraternity and victories would never have happened. It's a shame these guys aren't competing for GDR either. » This therefore means that the Russian team will not appear at the championshipsEndurance this season. In WEC, Daniil Kvyat was to join the adventure for this year. The former pilot of Formula 1 was to be associated with James Allen and René Binder. Sophia Floersch also signed up with the team in ELMS and recently told us about her ambitions for this season. The young German will have to quickly find a new base if she wishes to participate in the 90th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. An event whose entry list, scheduled for Monday February 28, was finally postponed for “administrative reasons”. There is little doubt that Roman Rusinov's response was expected to allow the finalization of this list, the situation being unclear regarding this team, whose sponsor is the commercial name of Gazprom's fuel, a Russian company. No official communication has yet been made by the series' governing bodies on this subject.

Despite everything, Roman Rusinov is already planning a possible return to international competitions, when the global geopolitical situation allows it: “Now we are already considering various options for projects aimed at developing motorsport in our country. I sincerely hope that we can return to international racing once sportsmanship and equal conditions for all participants return to them.” After the team's Formula 1 announcement Haas regarding the departures of Nikita mazepin and its sponsor Uralkali, it is therefore another expected decision around the invasion of Ukraine by Russia which fell this Saturday.

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