F1 journalist Will Buxton had to clarify that he was in St. Petersburg, Florida for the IndyCar race and not the Russian city.
The 2022 IndyCar series kicks off this Sunday with the Firestone Grand Prix in St. Petersburg, Florida. The city however, shares its name with Russia’s second largest city in terms of population.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine last week, the entire F1 community along with most of the world have called for heavy sanctions to be imposed on the country. This included F1 removing the Russian GP from their 2021 calendar and Haas dropping all Uralkali branding from their team.
However, Buxton ended up being an innocent victim to a big misunderstanding from a section of the fanbase. The British journalist is in Florida for this weekend’s IndyCar season opener. Some people on the other hand thought that Buxton was in Russia.
As a result, he faced some backlash on social media with people claiming that he’s ‘promoting Russia’. With anti-Russia sentiments at a high, Buxton was forced to take to Instagram to clarify that he was not promoting Russia in any shape or form.
The 41-year old posted a story on Instagram to address his followers. “Quick one for the many messages this weekend saying I shouldn’t be promoting Russia,” the statement read. “I’m in St. Petersburg, Florida for the IndyCar race.”
Buxton’s St. Petersburg misunderstanding is not the first time the F1 community spoke out
Several F1 drivers have been very vocal about the situation in Ukraine right now. It started with Sebastian Vettel calling for the Russian GP to be removed from the calendar this year. The four-time World Champion insisted that even if the race wasn’t scrapped, he would not travel to Sochi to take part in it.
Max Verstappen soon spoke out against racing in Russia as well. “It’s not right to race in a country when there’s a war going on,” he stated.
F1 acted swiftly to announce that the Russian GP had indeed been removed from the calendar. It was a decision that was welcomed by everyone involved within the sport.
Haas had Uralkali (a Russian fertilizer company) as their title sponsor since 2021. However, as soon as the country launched offensive in Ukraine, the American team reacted by removing all of Uralkali’s branding from their team bases.
Since then, we’ve seen the likes of Mick Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso speak in favor of peace, calling for the war to be stopped.
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