The British GP protesters failed to realise two vital points · RaceFans

Motorsport is an obvious target for environmental protestors, and last week’s demonstration at Silverstone was far from the first.

Two years earlier environmental protest group Extinction Rebellion infiltrated the British Grand Prix, which was being held without spectators due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and displayed a banner which was briefly caught by the television cameras. Last year they did the same at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Previously, protests tended to be been specific in nature: Bahraini activists asking F1 not to go to the kingdom after a suppressed uprising, or residents of Albert Park or Miami Gardens not wanting a grand prix circuit dropped into their neighbourhood.

Motorsport presents a huge platform, and in particular Formula 1, which is by far its biggest series. And it clearly represents one of the hot-button issues of 2022 in a way almost no other singular event can. While efforts to slow climate change become increasingly desperate, motorsport represents, to many in the wider world, a particular type of petrolhead wastefulness that doesn’t seem compatible with caring for the environment.

The protestors representing Just Stop Oil who entered the track at Silverstone as the British Grand Prix began got a shocked response from the motorsport community. Had it not been for Zhou Guanyu’s enormous crash at Abbey which triggered a red flag, their protest would undoubtedly have had a much bigger impact.

Anyone who understands racing knows how incredibly dangerous it is to enter a live track. Protestors keen to put themselves in the way of race cars either fail to realise the danger or are willing to risk being killed – an incredibly unfair thing to do to a driver who hits them, or crashes avoiding them or marshals who have to put themselves in the way of danger to save them. The organisers of motorsport events where the density of police and marshals is lower, such as rallies where spectators stand in nearby woods and up slopes, must be looking on with concern. What Just Stop Oil (who campaign on the straightforward platform of not mining any more oil) also failed to see is that several drivers support their sentiments, if in no way their tactics. Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez endorsed their cause, while also pointing out that entering a live racing track is desperately dangerous and irresponsible form of protest.

“I very much sympathise with their fears and anxieties,” said Vettel. “I think everybody…