On Tuesday, Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali confirmed that no more races would be organized in Russia in the future. Earlier this year F1 had cancelled the Russian Grand Prix. It was meant to be the last race to be held in Sochi before moving to St. Petersburg from 2023 onwards.
Talking to Sport Bild, Stefano said, “I’ve always believed that you should never say never, but in this case, I can promise for sure — we will no longer negotiate with them. There will be no more racing in Russia.”
In response to Stefano’s words, Russian sporting officials raised concerns over refunds for pre-payments done to the race promoters. Dmitry Svishchev, chairman at the sports administration in Russia’s federal lower house noted that Stefano was after all an employee and his words would be taken at the value of the length of his contract. He called the decisions taken by F1 management regarding payments a scam which was not according to sporting regulations of any kind.
Russian GP promoter ANO Rosgonki too harped on similar tunes about Russia’s position on the ban. He said, “The current situation in world sports is extremely politicized. It is necessary to take Domenicali’s words here with this in mind. What he said has a pronounced political connotation that has nothing to do with the real spirit of sports. The future of our relations today is really unclear. We will take Domenicali’s position into account in our further work.“
