Saudi Arabian GP heads hold talks with F1 teams regarding safety matters

The Saudi Arabian GP's top brass have held talks with F1 teams and drivers regarding any safety concerns that they might have following this year's scare.

The Saudi Arabian GP race weekend earlier this season was overshadowed by a missile attack on a facility close to the Jeddah track. This led to fears that the event would be suspended as safety became a major issue. However, the race did take place as Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen battled it out for the win. The Red Bull driver edged the Ferrari star.

Remember when they raced in Saudi while a literal building was on fire next to the track because of a missile 😍 yeah F1 don’t care about these things apparently twitter.com/spectatorindex…

After the incident, the organizers said they were willing to have an open dialogue with F1 teams and drivers regarding any safety concerns they had.

Speaking to select media outlets, including Motorsport.com, about the recent meeting, Saudi Arabia's sports minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Turki Al-Faisal said:

"We spoke to them about what necessary measures have been taken, working with F1, in particular, and our number one priority is safety for everyone. That's not just around the track, but also around the kingdom.

"Funnily enough, three days after that [attack], there was an announcement of a ceasefire. So I think with all the media coming [to the race] and so on, it was a way to show aggression and to pick up on the media out there. But we were confident that security and safety was there at the time."

Prince Abdulaziz stressed the importance of having an open discussion over concerns that anyone in F1 would have. He said:

"I think what we need to do more is keeping an open dialogue and an open communication between us. For us, even it was a learning curve, so maybe we didn't reach out to a lot of the teams and so on before the first race.

"We saw that that was necessary [now], so we took that action. We know that we have some concerns regarding some issues. We're not perfect and we never claimed that we are. But at least we're learning from our experiences and we're taking action to make it better in the future."

Story of a Picture

@alo_oficial 's 25th win in #F1 was achieved in the 2010 #SingaporeGP, beating Sebastian Vettel by just 0.293s - the closest finish in the history of this race

#فورمولا1_في_السعودية #SaudiMotorsport #SaudiArabianGP https://t.co/NtaQjwZiPc

Prince Abdulaziz also stated that further safety measures would be taken by the organizers to ensure the safety of the F1 community. He said:

"We are working with F1 to make sure that any concerns that any of the drivers, teams or individuals, even the fans, have, that we make sure that we fulfil these concerns. We know that it's safe, but we need to explain what measures have been done."

He added:

"More than 4000 troops were deployed during that event just to make sure [of that], because when these things happen, you are afraid people that want to aggravate will pick up on it.

"So we just made sure no one affects the safety of the event and the city. For us, safety and security is even bigger than F1. It's about a nation, so that's our number one priority. And we are working with them."

Tweaks to F1 track also proposed for Saudi Arabian GP

There have been some concerns about the kerbs at the Jeddah circuit this season. The new-generation cars do not ride these kerbs as well as those of the previous generation. This even led to Mick Schumacher suffering a massive crash and being forced to miss the race.

Prince Abdulaziz explained how the race organizers are trying to make tweaks to the track in order to adapt it for the new generation of cars. He said:

"We are working with the FIA and F1 to make certain changes to the track. The layout is the same but for safety issues we will improve visibility. We learned as well that the new car is more sensitive on the kerbs, that was the same in Miami, so we changed the kerbs for that compared to the first year.

"We have been working since we finished the second race constantly with the FIA and F1 to make sure we come to the next race well prepared."

The Saudi Arabian GP will run under a cloud of speculation next year as tensions in the region have not effectively died down.