Odd detail

[LukeBrown66]

Was attending the GTWC at Brands this weekend, great stuff. Only went on the qualifying day as there is free coverage on YouTube of the races with great comms from Addison and Wattie.

Noticed an odd detail, the guy who won the race with Marciello, is Timur Boguslavsky, he is Russian. His flag is deleted etc on their website and no flag on his captions during the race. Alex Malykhin drives for the Barwell team and he mysteriously came down with an illness on the Friday night, he is also Russian! So they did not compete actually i think.

Are SRO ignoring the ban on Russian people competing in stuff here, this seems a bit dodgy to me? Mayeb dual nationalities or something?

[Truckosaurus]

There wasn't an outright ban on Russian drivers, they can race as a neutral.

There is a ban on Russian money which, of course, prevents many Russian drivers taking part as with 99% of other drivers they aren't there on merit alone.

[_Yeti]

No idea on the political stuff but I was there on the Sunday. Great event and much busier than in previous years. Though there was hardly any cars on display whereas there's usually loads. Also agree that the YouTube coverage is spot on with great commentators

[JoelH]

As I understand it the confusion comes from the differing approach of the FIA and MSUK. In UK sanctioned events Russian and Belarus drivers aren't allowed to race regardless of whether they are under a neutral flag. For FIA sanctioned events they can. As the SRO series is international I assume it races under FIA regulations at all events?

[LukeBrown66]

I was not quite clear on the situation, I am presuming these guys are bringing money to teams, as they are the amateur drivers in those teams, so normally they would be paying for those drives,
I see on the SRO website and on the coverage there was just a white flag, and no mention was made anywhere of their nationality.

Malykhin was interesting as he was there and looked fine, but was apparently "ill" Would racing for a British team change the situation I wonder?

Was good stuff either way, just interested in all this odd stuff regarding drivers, as these guys will have paid up front for drives I presume!