Ecclestone: The MH17 crash has no impact on the Russian Grand Prix F1
The organization of the Russian Grand Prix of Formula 1 should not be affected by the crisis surrounding the crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17; at least that's what Bernie Ecclestone stated.
After the crash of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 while it was flying over Ukraine, presumably shot down by one of the sides in the conflict between Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian separatists, the question arises about maintaining events organized in the two countries, particularly in Russia, as international pressure on the Kremlin grows.
As such, the Russian Grand Prix of Formula 1, scheduled for next October, represents the next major sporting event in a busy calendar that has already seen the Winter Olympics held in Sochi last February, and will see the organization of the World Cup in 2018. International attention will undoubtedly be focused on the circus of the premier discipline of motorsport if the situation does not move towards a de-escalation.
Vladimir Putin, the current Russian President, has personally been involved in the Sochi Grand Prix project. As such, the opposition faced by the former KGB member (the Soviet secret services) from the international community following the MH17 crash could affect the organization of the race, both politically and in terms of security.
However, Bernie Ecclestone, questioned by Adam Cooper on his blog, disagrees and explains that F1 should stay out of such concerns: « I don’t see any problem with that. Were they at the World Cup or not? Do you think people tried to stop it, no? As I said, we are not involved in politics. We have a contract with them, we know they will honor it. And we will do the same. »
Could the strong involvement of the Russian executive leader eventually represent a problem? « No, not that I know of. We should not speculate on what might happen. We will honor our contract. Mr. Putin has personally supported and helped us, and we will do the same. »
In May last year, the president of the Formula One Management had already explained that he had no doubt about the event taking place. On the motorsports side, the SuperBike race that was supposed to take place in Moscow on September 21st has been canceled since April.
