From the roar of Formula 1 engines to the elegance of international tennis, Saudi Arabia has been pouring billions into sports—not just for the love of the game, but to rebrand its image. This isn’t about athletic excellence. It’s about sportswashing: using high-profile events to distract from a long and painful record of repression. Whether it’s hosting the 2034 FIFA World Cup, investing heavily in tennis, or staging the Italian Super Cup, the Saudi government has made global sport a tool for public relations. And nowhere is this more visible than in the Formula 1 Grand Prix, held each year in Jeddah since 2021.The 2025 edition took place on April 20th at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, drawing the world’s attention to a spectacle carefully crafted to outshine the country’s human rights crisis.
While the world watches the spectacle trackside or on screens, a very different story is unfolding just beyond the spotlight. In 2024, Saudi authorities carried out 345 executions—a staggering figure, more than twice the number from the year before. Among those killed were at least 138 foreign nationals, many of them convicted through rushed trials with no real chance to defend themselves. A disturbing number were sentenced to death for drug-related offenses, in blatant disregard of international law, which prohibits capital punishment for such crimes. In late 2022, the Kingdom lifted a moratorium on these executions—and the numbers have only surged since. In the meantime,the crackdown on peaceful dissent has continued, with activists, journalists, and critics regularly thrown into prison or forced into silence.
Yet in March 2025, the headlines weren’t about executions or arbitrary detentions. They were about Jeddah’s race weekend: the blinding lights, luxury sponsorships, and high-speed thrills of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Formula 1 event has become a glittering centerpiece in the Kingdom’s image campaign—one that projects modernity, excitement, and global engagement, while shielding the regime from scrutiny. This isn’t accidental. As The Guardian warned back in 2020, the F1 Grand Prix runs the risk of becoming a distraction tactic, papering over the daily reality of repression. By 2021, the pressure had grown, with rights groups calling on Formula 1 to break its silence and address the abuses. But F1 chose business as usual.
It’s not an isolated case. In a recent analysis, human rights advocates pointed to a broader trend: major sporting institutions willingly partnering with authoritarian governments despite clear warnings and red flags. Formula 1 has shown no signs of implementing meaningful human rights due diligence in Saudi Arabia. Corporate sponsors keep lining up, and the sport’s governing bodies remain silent—despite mounting evidence of complicity.
And this isn’t the first time. Back in 2014, during Bahrain’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests, Formula One Management Ltd. was the subject of a formal complaint filed with the UK National Contact Point under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The complaint, brought by Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain, accused F1 of enabling abuses by going ahead with races despite the violence. It also highlighted the organization’s failure to assess or mitigate harm linked to its presence. While Formula 1 eventually promised to adopt a human rights policy, nothing concrete was ever implemented. More than a decade later, the races continue—but the safeguards still don’t exist.
This is the real cost of silence. As sports fans cheer from grandstands and lounges, the people most affected by these events—those imprisoned, silenced, or executed—remain invisible. The Saudi regime has mastered the art of distraction, and Formula 1 has become a willing partner in that illusion. If F1 and other global sports bodies are serious about ethical responsibility, they must act now. That means enforcing human rights due diligence, listening to the voices of civil society, and being willing to walk away when basic freedoms are at stake. Until then, the track in Jeddah won’t just echo with the sound of engines—it will echo with everything the world chooses to ignore.
