By Elishya Perera
Riad, Saudi Arabia (CWBN)_ Saudi Arabia will host a Formula 1 Grand Prix in its Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah in November 2021, race organisers and F1 announced yesterday (Nov 5).
The race will be held as part of a 15-year partnership between the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation and Formula 1.
Participating in a ceremony on the Jeddah waterfront, Minister of Sport Prince Abdul Aziz bin Turki Al-Faisal said the race will help the Kingdom become the center of sporting events, and is expected to attract tourists in large numbers.
“We realise the extent to which the people of Saudi Arabia are keen to always be at the center of the most important sporting and international events, especially that this is the first opportunity to follow Formula 1 races on Saudi land,” the minister said.
“Formula 1 races will be a great opportunity in the future to further promote positive developments in society, provide more options to enrich the life of our community and encourage it to test new experiences,” the sports minister added.
However, the announcement raised concerns from human rights activists who accuse Saudi Arabia of using sport events to create a positive image, known as “sportswashing”.
“We would urge all F1 drivers, owners & teams to consider speaking out about the human rights situation in the country”, Amnesty International’s UK head of campaigns Felix Jakens said.
When asked last week about the prospect of a GP in Saudi Arabia, Lewis Hamilton, an outspoken campaigner for diversity and equality in F1, said he would need to find out more about the regime before making a judgment, but the sport was “a powerful platform to initiate change”.
Last month, Human Rights Watch launched a campaign to counter Saudi government efforts to whitewash its dismal rights’ record. “The Saudi government has spent billions of dollars hosting major entertainment, cultural, and sporting events as a deliberate strategy to deflect from the country’s image as a pervasive human rights violator,” the organisation said.
