In the wake of our reports highlighting the threat of terrorism during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend in December, Formula 1 has responded by saying “F1 would never go somewhere” to high security risk areas.

Approached for comment, the F1 spokesperson briskly responded: “Safety of F1 personnel and spectators is the paramount consideration always.

“Every promoter and host country devotes considerable resources and expertise to the planning and rehearsal of its security arrangements and F1 has a security team that reviews those arrangements in the planning stage.

“F1 would never go somewhere if it did not have confidence that the host government and its security agencies had the risks appropriately mitigated and under control.”

The first Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia is scheduled for the weekend of 3 to 5 December.