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Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) president Nasser Khalifa al-Attiyah has stressed on the need for education and awareness to curb the number of accidents on the country's roads. |
Al-Attiyah was speaking at the Host Cities conference as part of Aspire4Sport here yesterday and while elaborating on Qatar's successful hosting of the MotoGP and other motorsports event, he said, “Speeding and accidents on the roads is an issue. Qatar has a motorsports history of more than 35 years. We have had rallies, bike races, etc. and we can proudly say that we haven't had a single death on the track. Thank God for that,” he said.
“Yet in the last ten years the number of accidents have increased on the road. We, at QMMF, have been reaching out to schools, calling for the kids to visit Losail International Circuit, so they can see the kind of medical and infrastructural facilities we have in place for racing. When these kids grow up they can channelise their thirst for speeding on the track where it is safe for them to do so.”
Road safety has been the focus of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the world motorsports body, ever since Frenchman Jean Todt took over the reigns as the president.
Todt, who is likely to be re-elected unopposed to the post for another term after his only opponent Englishman David Ward withdrew his candidature, has been one of the biggest supporters of QMMF.
Last month, al-Attiyah had unequivocally expressed the federation's support for the former Ferrari F1 team principal in the December elections.
“One of the first gifts parents give to their kids in Brazil is football. No wonder they are one of the leaders of the game. We, in Qatar, we gift cars to our children. So in their growing-up years the kids are obviously eager to push it to the limit. Through QMMF we need them to understand that on a racetrack, medical help is available quickly enough, and they can properly and safely channelise their energies on the track,” al-Attiyah, who is also the president of the Cross Country Commission in the FIA and the vice president of Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), said.
“We understand that motorsports is a dangerous sport and hence it requires passionate young people to participate and we are doing our best to attract the best of Qatari talent,” he added.
As part of the conference, al-Attiyah spoke about a range of topics including the 10 years of hosting MotoGP in Qatar, bringing more and more international events to the country, being the first country in the world to host events at night, and also bringing Formula One to the country.
“We already have two Formula One races happening in the region – Abu Dhabi and Bahrain. Having another one at the moment is not what we are looking at. But we do want to host Formula One at a future date as and when it is possible,” al-Attiyah said.
Earlier this year, al-Attiyah had hoped for at least getting the testing sessions to Qatar. However, Bahrain has been selected as the site for two pre-season tests in 2014 after a decision was signed off at a meeting of team managers ahead of this year's Korean Grand Prix.