F1: Saudi F1 Promoter Has Discussed Human Rights Issues With Drivers, But Not Hamilton

Saudi Arabia will host its first Formula One race later this year in Jeddah as a part of a decade long deal. The race will start in Jeddah and then it will perhaps move to an entertainment city of Qiddiya in the future. Addressing issues brought up by 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton around the "human rights issues" in some of the countries F1 races, has brought the Saudi Automotive and Motorcycle Federation Prince Khalid Bin Sultan Al Faisal to the fore who has revealed that over the last weekend at the British GP he even met with some of the drivers to address these issues. 

This comes in the wake of organisations like Amnesty International criticising F1 for hosting a race in countries like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and China. Bahrain and China have been part of the F1 calendar for over a decade and predate the age of social media, however, the race in Saudi Arabia being the new entrant has attracted a lot of negative publicity fuelled further by the comments of the defending world champion and the most recognisable current driver in the sport Lewis Hamilton. 

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"I met at Silverstone with a couple of drivers. I'm not going to name their names, but Lewis Hamilton wasn't one of them. I addressed their concerns and I spoke with them openly. I said, listen, I'm not going to tell you anything, you come to Saudi Arabia and you see it, and if you want to come here before the race, you can come, and you judge by yourself," said Prince Khalid as reported by Motorsport.com. 

"You can come and have a chance to see our country freely, and then you can say your opinion about our country because we're confident about what we progress and where we are going. So we have no issues [discussing it]," said the Prince requesting the audience and the drivers alike to give it a chance. 

Prince Khalid revealed that he addressed some of human rights issues with the drivers

Motorsport of course is not new to Saudi Arabia. It has been hosting a number of high profile motor sporting events like the Dakar rally since 2020, the Formula E race in Diriyah since 2018. For Formula One which sees increasing activism from drivers like Lewis Hamilton around human rights and racial equality and climate change by Sebastian Vettel, the two most successful on the current grid puts it in a tough spot. Last year, the "we race as one" moniker was unveiled as part of a CSR effort by F1 and Prince Khalid has admitted that he is working closely with Stefano Domenicali's team to align the missions. 

"As of now, things are progressing really good between us. This is part of our strategy, in Saudi Arabia, to open up our country. We want to prove the quality of life for anybody, for the Saudis or anyone that visits Saudi Arabia. This will help us achieve our goals," he said.