PR disaster likely if Russian GP proceeds
FEARS ARE growing that Formula One is steering towards a new public relations fiasco as the sport gears up for the inaugural Russian Grand Prix.
Leading sponsors were already nervous about the new race in a country embroiled in the crisis in Ukraine, but the downing of the Malaysia Airlines jet on Thursday has sent a fresh shudder through the paddock.
The Russian Grand Prix is a pet project of President Vladimir Putin, whose vision was for a race around the Olympic Park built to stage the Winter Olympics in February. Putin attended the Winter Olympics, but his presence at a Russian Grand Prix at such a sensitive time would embroil F1 in a political row that could be as ugly as the infamous Bahrain Grand Prix of 2012, which brought worldwide condemnation on the sport.
F1 ploughed into Bahrain even though protesters were on the streets trying to prevent the race from taking place in the wake of the bloodshed of the prodemocracy uprising.
Bernie Ecclestone, F1’s controversial chief executive, insisted that the race went ahead in the face of widespread criticism from human rights groups and politicians. The teams were safe but the publicity was appalling and one source at the FIA, the governing body, called it ‘‘a public relations catastrophe’’.
Sochi in October could be as bad. Sir Richard Ottaway, chairman of the House of Commons foreign affairs select committee, said in May that a grand prix in Russia was ‘‘wildly unrealistic’’, given the mounting tension between the West and Russia.
However, Ecclestone will hear no question of cancelling the first Russian Grand Prix and sponsors are torn between the need to exploit one of the world’s biggestgrowing markets and being seen to uphold the highest of standards in business.
It is three months before the race is scheduled, which will be a tense period in which hoteliers in Sochi, hoping for a lucrative payday, sponsors and teams will wonder whether events in Ukraine will scupper the inaugural Russian Grand Prix.