Is the FIA failing its own rules?

The Saudi Arabian GP has already caused a lot of commotion. Partly because of the country itself, but also because of the circuit that was built in no time. Now let's see if everything goes according to the rules?

Rulebreaker

The GP of Saudi Arabia will be held (if all goes well) on December 5th. At the time of writing this blog, the circuit is not completely finished. Many people will be happy that the race will not be run because there are very bad human rights in the country and freedom is not taken for granted. I also share this opinion that F1 has no business in these countries, but that is something for another time. However, it occurred to me while reading another article that there is a rule in the FIA sporting code. It concerns appendix O 3.4 which deals with circuits and inspection. Full rule:

''On-site inspections will be performed by the Commission's delegates as necessary, with at least one preliminary inspection and one final inspection. For permanent circuits, the fina inspection should be made not later than 60 days (or 90 days for FIA Formula One World Championship competitions) before the first international competition to be held, at which inspection all work relating to the track surface, permanent features and safety installations should be completed to the FIA's satisfaction. For non-permanent circuits, not later than 120 days before the competition concerned, a dossier in conformity with Supplement 1 and the construction timetable should be submitted to the FIA for approval. The date and time of the final inspection will be fixed for each case individually by the FIA inspector after a preliminary site inspection which should take place not later than 60 days before the competition, at which time all work relating to the track surface, with the possible exception of minor modifications or repairs, must be completed to the FIA's satisfaction.''

As you can read it states that at least 60 days  before the competition the final inspection has to be made. Since the circuit is far from finished and the event is in 2 weeks (as of the time of writing)? I do not now how they could ever made an final inspection 60 days before. I haven't seen another rule that says this rule expires if ''x'' occurs or something like that. So without hesitation, I emailed several people at the FIA with a few questions. The main question was of course how the FIA would inspect the track 60 days in advance if the track is only ready 1 week before the Grand Prix? I have tried to contact several people regarding this question. The majority could not answer this, but there was 1 person who told me that there has been an inspection during the renovation. Which is very strange because there is nothing to inspect when almost nothing has been built yet.

Korean GP 2010

If we go back in time to 2010. The Korean GP hadn't gotten the green light yet. It was not until 10 days before the GP weekend that the circuit received a license and green light. So this rule was also broken. the circuit only had a new layer of asphalt at that time and all systems had not even been checked yet. Bernie Ecclestone also indicated that he thought it was dangerous to give the green light just before race day. But after a careful inspection from Whiting who gave the license to the circuit and green light, Ecclestone had turned around. He said: "I will be there, the world will be watching and we will have a great race-it is on, end of story''. The 2010 Korean GP was won by Fernando Alonse and was nevertheless a great success.

Formula 1 and the FIA ​​will break even more rules in the future if it benefits the sport. Although the latter may be different for everyone. We must not forget that Formula 1 is a business. Whoever runs the business outranks whoever runs the sport and that's why we are going to see a GP in Saudi Arabia. Money rules!

Rick