F1 and politics: Silence, we roll!

While the holding of the Russian Grand Prix is on hold following the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, we return to these countries where F1 turned a blind eye by organizing Grands Prix. (Article taken from N°2286 - November 11, 2020)

Published on 25/02/2022 à 12:06

⁰ View comments)

During the Franco dictatorship, F1 went to Montjuïc near Barcelona to compete in the Spanish Grand Prix. ©DPPI

Has she ever really considered the world in which she operates? Before the Covid-19 pandemic which in recent months has forced it to review its way of thinking and operating, the answer was clearly no. Indifferent to poverty and respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – adopted by the United Nations Assembly in 1948 -, the F1 never stopped paving its way. Taking refuge behind this old adage, more modern than ever, which says that sport and politics must not be mixed, it has wonderfully accommodated itself to the military juntas which, from 1964 to 1985 in Brazil and 1976 to 1983 in Argentina, deported, tortured and murdered, as she coped with Franco's Spain until 1975 or with the Salazarist dictatorship which dominated Portugal until the Carnation Revolution in April 1974. And what about the 21 Grands Prix contested in South Africa until 1991 under the Apartheid regime?

Depuis, elle a conquis de nouveaux territoires ne brillant pas non plus pour leur amour immodéré de la démocratie et des libertés individuelles comme la Malaisie en 1999, la Chine et Bahreïn en 2004, la Turquie en 2005, Abou Dhabi en 2009, l’Inde en 2011, la Russie en 2014, l’Azerbaïdjan en 2017 et demain l’Arabie saoudite. Avant que la Formule 1 ne retourne ce week-end dans la Turquie du « sultan » Erdogan qui cultive les tensions et cible les