75th Anniversary of Formula 1

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Thursday 12th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

The Minister for Sport has regular conversations with all relevant stadia. With regards to Formula 1, those will start for next year’s celebrations in January. If the noble Lord has specific concerns, he should feel free to raise them with me and I will make sure the department addresses them.

[Baroness Brinton (LD)]

My Lords, nine years ago I was in Mexico at the same time as the grand prix there, sharing a hotel with the Ferrari back-office team. I got stranded at the hotel because the disability taxi failed to turn up. After 36 hours without sleep, three of the team worked with me to solve the problem and help me rebook my flight. I have a picture in front of their Ferrari. My next car is definitely going to be a Ferrari. Does the Minister agree that we need to recognise the support of the back-office teams, who are often invisible? In this particular circumstance, it was unusual for a grand prix team to help somebody in a wheelchair, and they were brilliant.

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for sharing her story and put on record our thanks to Ferrari for making sure that she did not get stranded. I think we can see that our collective teams want to help as many people as possible, and it was great they were able to do so in that instance.