F1 confirm "we're racing" in Saudi Arabian GP after late-night drivers' meeting

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will go ahead as planned after a four-and-a-half-hour drivers' meeting.

The F1 paddock was rocked on Friday after terrorists attacked the Aramco facility situated just 11 kilometres from the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

In reaction, F1 and the FIA hosted a pair of meetings held either side of second practice with the teams and the drivers with the outcome that the weekend would continue as planned.

Although the team principals were unanimous in their support of racing on, the drivers were split, something highlighted by the lengthy meeting of the 20 men that extended into the small hours of the morning.

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, managing director Ross Brawn both briefly visited the meeting with the 10 team principals joining after three hours of talks.

For the final half-hour of the meeting, the drivers were once again left to their own devices before Grand Prix Drivers' Asociation director George Russell joined the team principals in a separate meeting.

After leaving the meeting, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner confirmed to GPFans: "We'll be racing."

Further confirming this, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown added: "We're racing."

Asked what took so long for a decision to be reached, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff explained: "It was a proper discussion in the end. Many opinions.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has emerged from the meeting and asked by me if the race was on or off he said “We’ll be racing.”

— Ian Parkes (@ianparkesf1) March 25, 2022

Additional confirmation from McLaren CEO Zak Brown that “we’re racing”.#F1 #SaudiArabianGP

— Ian Parkes (@ianparkesf1) March 25, 2022

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