Fear of dangerous protest
Police pull “ring of steel” around Formula 1 track
07/08/2023 12:57 p.m
Additional officials, plus facial recognition: Silverstone takes precautions against possible protests at the Formula 1 weekend. The memory of the past year has increased concerns about dangerous actions. The responsible police chief speaks of a “ring of steel”.
The Northamptonshire police responsible uses live facial recognition at the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Silverstone. However, this is not an access condition on Saturday and Sunday, according to a tweet from the authority. It is also clearly marked with signs. According to official information, 120,000 spectators came to the route north-east of London on Friday.
After activists got onto the track and sat down a year ago, safety precautions were tightened again. Northamptonshire Police Event Commander Richard Tompkins spoke of a “ring of steel around the track”. Additional officers are on duty. Northamptonshire Police respect the longstanding right to protest peacefully. But if, among other things, lives were endangered, they would step in and arrest people immediately.
A year ago, the first round of a protest was organized by the organization Just Stop Oil. Due to a serious accident right at the start of the race, the Grand Prix had already been interrupted and the drivers were slowly making their way back to the pits. Otherwise, the cars would have reached the protest site at well over 200 kilometers per hour.
“We don’t want them to endanger themselves and we don’t want anyone else to be endangered,” said record world champion Lewis Hamilton. When asked, the 38-year-old politically and socially committed Brit from the Mercedes team made it clear: “I support peaceful protests.” Just Stop Oil then tweeted, addressing those in charge that all they had to do was demand that the UK government stop pushing for new oil and gas and drop its own fossil fuel sponsor. At the tennis tournament in Wimbledon, activists from the organization recently caused the game to be interrupted twice.