Another Russian athlete spoke out against the allegedly discriminatory conditions for the start of Russians and Belarusians on the international stage. Roman Rusinov, chief and pilot of the G-Drive stable, objected to the code of conduct announced for these racers by the International Automobile Federation. In protest, he dropped off his team from the World Championships in endurance racing and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The FIA, unlike its sister motorcycle federation, allowed the citizens of Russia and Belarus to compete at its events even after the aggression in Ukraine, but set a number of conditions, which are based on the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee.
These include a ban on the use of the national flag and other symbols on cars, overalls and social networks, pilots will race under a neutral banner and will not hear their anthem on the podium. All this in response to the war frenzy in Ukraine.
However, Rusinov, who leads one of the top teams in the lower prototype LMP2 category, opposed the federation’s actions. He harshly criticized them on social networks over the weekend. “Today, I, the pilot of the Russian G-Drive Racing team, refused to accept the FIA’s discriminatory conditions,” said the 40-year-old Russian.
“We raised the Russian flag, heard and sang the Russian anthem. In the interest of my fans, in the interest of my teammates and sports honor, I will not sign this document. I prefer not to ride at all,” Rusinov added.
The G-Drive team originated from the French stable of TDS Racing and regularly participates in endurance events. Rusinov himself unexpectedly became the LMP2 World Champion in his colors in 2015, two years later he won the European Le Mans Series and the Asian Le Mans Series the year before.
This year, the team at the World Championships counted on one car piloted by Russian F1 ex-pilot Daniil Kvyat, Austrian Rene Binder and James Allen from Australia. In addition, G-Drive wanted to deploy a second special in Le Mans.
The prototype Oreca of the Russian G-Drive team at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2021 | Photo: FIA WEC
Due to the uncertainty regarding the start of the Russians, the organizing organization ACO delayed the submission of applications for a long time and did not open it until Monday.
In addition to disagreement with the ban on the use of the Russian flag and anthem, the reasons why G-Drive decided to withdraw from the international scene may include the complicated situation of their big sponsor, the gas giant Gazprom.
In addition, cutting off a large number of Russian financial institutions from the SWIFT payment system complicates the transfer of money from Russia to Europe and thus the financing of racing. “We are now considering various options for motorsport development projects in our country,” Rusinov said.
