World Motor Sport Council to discuss F1 event security

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The FIA is to raise the matter of Formula 1 event security with the sport's commercial rights holders at the next World Motor Sport Council meeting.

It follows reports of multiple teams suffering armed or violent robbery attempts in Brazil. The incidents took place as they travelled to and from the circuit at Interlagos during the Grand Prix race weekend.

Concerns over the security of personnel prompted Pirelli to call off this week's planned post-race tyre test with McLaren. The situation is considered so grave, there's speculation that F1 might never return to Sao Paulo.

Rio de Janeiro and Florianopolis are rumoured to be under consideration as safer alternative venues for the race.

The FIA has requested that reports be collated by the commercial rights holder concerning the incidents. Those reports will be presented to the WMSC at its next meeting on 6 December.

The Council will then discuss the ways in which a more consistent and effective security procedure can be applied at all future F1 events.

Any agreed findings will also be shared with other FIA championship organisers. That will maximise the positive impact across all motor sport that falls under the governing body's jurisdiction.

McLaren tyre test at Interlagos scrapped for security reasons

A statement from the FIA acknowledged that security is a cooperative effort. It said that the FIA will seek to work closely with all its stakeholders to maintain a safe environment for everyone working at or visiting F1 events.

Earlier, the commercial rights holder had explained that event security was not its responsibility.

"We are just the commercial rights holder," said a spokesperson for Liberty Media. "We sell those rights to the local promoter. Security within the circuit is their responsibility.

"Formula 1 has our own security team that travels with us," the spokesperson continued. "We are actively involved, but we cannot be experts in every city we go to.

"There is a year between now and the next race to get it sorted. We would be extremely disappointed if things have not been looked at."

The spokesperson added that disappointment "is not a strong enough word" for the events that took place in Brazil last weekend.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.