FIA staff free to skip Middle East finale amid safety concerns

The governing body is giving staff the choice not to travel if they feel uncomfortable visiting the region. It follows Mercedes and Ferrari confirming they will respect employees’ decisions to miss the trip.

F1 says its teams support completing the season as scheduled and while the situation is being monitored, F1's governing body has told staff to come forward if they are concerned about heading to the region.

The FIA’s position makes that distinction clear. The races remain on, but staff who raise concerns will not be required to attend and will be replaced by those who are happy to travel.

There is no indication of how many FIA employees, if any, have opted to stay home. It does, however, put individual choice at the heart of a decision affecting personnel across the paddock.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff outlined the same approach at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, saying that declining to travel would not harm an employee’s relationship with the team.

“If someone feels he or she doesn't feel comfortable in travelling, then it's something that I would always respect,” Wolff said. He added that nobody at Mercedes had raised the issue with him at that stage.

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur also said his team would respect any employee who did not want to make the trip. Those assurances leave room for staff to reach a different conclusion from their employers without being compelled to travel.

At Aston Martin, chief trackside officer Mike Krack acknowledged that concerns were also coming from employees’ families.

“Team members receive questions from their families. Therefore, the more we can reassure them, the better,” he said. But Krack also conceded the limits of those assurances: “We can't always offer absolute reassurance, because, often, even we don't know what's going to happen.”

That is the challenge facing the championship. Confidence in the decision to race cannot remove every concern held by those travelling, or by the families they leave behind.

The uncertainty extends beyond teams and officials. GPblog previously reported that several broadcasters were considering keeping their trackside crews at home, citing reporting by BILD.

Those potential changes concern on-site staffing, not confirmation that race coverage would stop. For now, F1 remains committed to Qatar and Abu Dhabi, with Imola stood down as a backup.

The championship has nevertheless said it “will not hesitate to do the right thing” if the regional situation deteriorates before the events. The FIA’s policy does not change the calendar but it does reinforce the distinction running through the paddock’s response: agreeing that a race should go ahead is not the same as requiring every employee to be there.