The Sanctions Have Been Applied – Now Let’s Finish The Job

With a statement yesterday from Roman Rusinov – see bottom of this piece for that in its entirety – one part of the picture in relation to the coming season has become clearer – There will be no G-Drive Racing entered or branded cars in the FIA WEC, at Le Mans or in the ELMS.

That’s a direct result of the sanctions imposed both economically and administratively by national governments and sporting bodies on Russian and Belarussian interests with regard to the truly dreadful actions of the Russian state in Ukraine.

A broader examination of the timing and quality of some of those decisions is for another day. Right now the matter in hand in our sport, and the business that surrounds it, is to deal with the outcomes of the process.

Most urgently there is the matter of the impact on multiple teams of the withdrawal from competition of drivers and sponsors with, in some cases, just days to go before their seasons get under way.

Across multiple conversations with multiple teams and in multiple national, continental and global championships the picture is emerging of a remarkably resilient industry, working together to enable, where at all possible, for impacted programmes to survive and move forward without their previous drivers and/ or backers.

Indeed, at present, DSC is aware of only one or two GT race programmes that may be terminally affected, Stephane Ratel revealing at the SRO Awards Night in London on Friday that one full-season car in GT World Challenge Europe has already been withdrawn as a result.

The future too of the LMP2 and LMP3 programmes of Algarve Pro racing and Eurointernational also remain unclear, though DSC is aware that both teams have immediately deliverable plans to continue with their published commitments, if they are permitted to do so.

They though, and other programmes, remain at very considerable risk without assistance to navigate the choppy waters ahead.

The important point of principle at play here is that the sanctions were designed to impact Russian interests and some individuals. That seems to be ‘Mission Accomplished’ at present in the sport.

What they fundamentally were not designed to do was to impact the sustainability of businesses outside the sphere of Russian influence – put another way, they are not designed to leave a toll of economic damage with enterprises who, up until this week, had exercised entirely legitimate, and in many cases long-standing links with Russian investors or suppliers that were embraced by the race and championship organisers.

There is therefore a moral imperative within the messages delivered by economic sanctions to their intended targets that ‘You’re out and life goes on without you’ – and that’s an important part of the picture.

Allowing the sanctions to leave an economic toll in their wake outside of Russia is not only self defeating, it is going to allow a propagandist to exploit the clear gap in logic that results from the action.

There are, of course, difficult issues to be grasped and dealt with. And it is clear that those are taking time to resolve in a rapidly evolving situation.

But the ‘default setting’ of everyone involved should be to ensure that all involved receive any and all available assistance to carry on with business as usual. Whether that’s for the multiple GT3 efforts affected, or the Eurointernational and Algarve Pro LMP programmes, and likely many others besides.

If the teams can continue without their pre-sanctions package, they should be permitted to do so – and any accommodation to allow that to happen should be seen as a point of strength and resilience in a global message to a profoundly manipulative regime.

Graham Goodwin

Statement posted last night on Instagram by Roman Rusinov

Today, I, the pilot of the Russian G-Drive Racing team, refused to accept the discriminatory conditions of the FIA.

The goal of each athlete is to hear the anthem of their country on the podium. Over 10 years of international experience, our team has done this many times. We raised the Russian flag, we heard and sang the Russian anthem. For the sake of my fans, for the sake of my teammates and sporting honor, I will not sign this document. Better not to drive at all.

The GDR team has always been international: pilots, mechanics, engineers – they are all from different countries of the world. And if we asked everyone to give up their flag, experience and name, such a real sports brotherhood and victories would never have happened. It’s a pity that these guys won’t compete for GDR either.

Now we are already considering various options for projects to develop motorsport in our country.

I sincerely hope that we will be able to return to international racing once the sporting spirit and equal conditions for all participants return to them.

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