Formula 1 created fresh controversy this week with news that Anders Breivik is to be allowed to set up an F1 team.
The far-right Norwegian was originally granted permission to enter the sport last year but this licence was then withdrawn due to concerns that his behaviour was ‘unstable’. The sport’s ruling body vowed not to grant Breivik the right to enter a team until ‘stability’ had returned to his mental state. Although he has subsequently bombed Oslo and shot 69 people on the island of Utøya, F1 clearly considers this is now the case.
The decision to allow Breivik to enter Formula 1 is ‘not about the money’, according to F1 boss Bernard Ecclestone. ‘Anders Breivik is entered into Formula 1. It’s all scheduled,’ Mr Ecclestone said. ‘And although I essentially own, run and completely control the sport, I can’t do anything about that. It’s up to the teams.’
However, none of the current teams seemed willing take a stand against the inclusion of a mass murderer in the paddock. ‘We completely trust the decision of F1’s ruling body and it would be wrong of us to make assumptions about bringing a notorious terrorist into our ranks,’ said one unnamed team principle. ‘Though of course we see nothing wrong with failing to engage in any sort of debate about it and therefore appearing to endorse a dangerous psychopath who killed 77 innocent people’.
F1’s top drivers were equally unwilling to condemn Breivik’s arrival in the sport. ‘I’m a Formula 1 driver; it’s not my job to think about stuff,’ said one leading championship contender. ‘It’s my job to inadvertently portray myself as a weak, robotic component of the car with no opinions on anything’.
Meanwhile, those on the edge of F1 were more forthcoming in their views; ‘How can a man like Anders Breivik be allowed to run a team?’ said Maurice Ital of Every Other Sunday magazine. ‘He’s a dangerous, cruel, petty, deeply evil sociopath. He should be running the sport itself.’
