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No qualms about racing in Baku, insists Alonso

Fernando Alonso has said that he has no reservations or concerns about racing in Baku this weekend, despite pressure from campaign groups including Amnesty International over alleged human rights violations in Azerbaijan.

"We completely rely on the FIA in terms of the places and the venues we race, responded the McLaren driver on Thursday.

"On that aspect, or at least in my case I never think further than that. I totally put all my trust and my confidence on the Federation and the decision they made.

"If we're racing here then it's because it's everything was good to them and is good for us."

Alonso had been asked about the human rights situation as he had previously agreed to be an official ambassador for this weekend's Grand Prix of Europe for its maiden outing on the Baku City Circuit.

"We are promoting the sport around the world, and we are promoting the values of the sport around the world, and that will always be welcome in any country."

Asked to add his comments on the human rights situation, four-time world champion responded with a simple: "Well said, nothing to add."

Earlier in the day, Formula One commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone had shrugged off questions about whether the sport should be staging events in countries with questionable humans rights issues.

"The minute people tell me what human rights are, you can look at how, why and when it applies. Does anyone know what human rights are?", he said. "A lot of people are starving in the world and they have something to complain about."

In his typically uncensored fashion, Ecclestone did go on to describe this week's race venue as "a bit of a shit hole isn’t it?" compared with last week's event in Montreal.

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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.