{"id":113084,"date":"2025-05-19T01:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T01:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/113084\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T01:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T01:07:08","slug":"israeli-born-russia-raised-indy-500-pole-winner-calls-for-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/113084\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli-born, Russia-raised Indy 500 pole winner calls for peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Israeli-born IndyCar driver Robert Shwartzman used his platform after a stunning pole-winning run<\/a> for the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday to call for peace both in the nation where he was born and Russia, where he was largely raised and under whose banner he drove until its 2022 invasion of Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Making his debut in the \u201cThe Greatest Spectacle in Racing,\u201d the 25-year-old Shwartzman\u2019s four-lap average of 232.790 mph beat out a host of open-wheel racing\u2019s biggest stars to earn the first spot on the starting grid for the May 25 race.<\/p>\n

Then, he made an impassioned plea for peace in the Middle East, where Israel has been at war<\/a> with Hamas-led Palestinian groups since 2023, and Eastern Europe, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with top U.S. officials Sunday ahead of a phone call Monday<\/a> between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at ending their war.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want peace in the world,\u201d Shwartzman said. \u201cI want people to be good, and I don\u2019t want the separation of countries, saying, \u2018This is bad country. This is good country.\u2019 There is no bad or good. We\u2019re all human beings, and we just have to support each other. We need to find ways to, let\u2019s say, negotiate things. Find ways to agree on things, you know? Because from my experience, there is always, you know, a gold medal, I\u2019m calling it \u2014 like, there\u2019s always the right path.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shwartzman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and raised in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He began racing go-karts when he was 4 years old, and eventually, his budding career in motorsports took him to Italy and elsewhere in Europe.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a former member of the Ferrari Driver Academy and served as a Formula 1 reserve driver until just last year.<\/p>\n

In November, he was hired by Italy-based Prema Racing as one of two drivers for its nascent IndyCar program. He\u2019d never raced on an oval before arriving at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where speeds can reach up to 240 mph on the straightaways, and he was considered an afterthought to qualify anywhere near the front of the prestigious Indy 500.<\/p>\n

Shwartzman was surprised by the raucous cheer he received upon winning the pole \u2014 and really, the reception he has had among American racing fans throughout the month \u2014 given the way he was treated by many fans in Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, I feel really good with the fans. In my couple years in Europe, it was a bit more tense for me, I have to admit,\u201d Shwartzman said. \u201cSome fans supported me but some were against me. There were very tough moments in my life where I didn\u2019t do anything bad. I didn\u2019t support anything. I generally support people from my country, but all people with respect, and some people were saying bad things just because of where I was born.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps those experiences were one of the reasons why Shwartzman was so vocal in asking for peace on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really hope that at the end of the day, everything\u2019s going to be good in the world. It\u2019s going to be all calm,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom my side, I try to just, you know, represent my country and do my best, let people know that I\u2019m here and that I\u2019m giving it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP auto racing: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/auto-racing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Israeli-born IndyCar driver Robert Shwartzman used his platform after a stunning pole-winning run for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[26935,43076,51173,32,4179,835,33854,35063,51175,837,1815,51176,285,51177,51174,332,79,6185,7662,333,2601,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-113084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","9":"tag-auto-racing","10":"tag-automobile-racing","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-hamas","14":"tag-in-state-wire","15":"tag-indianapolis","16":"tag-indianapolis-500","17":"tag-israel","18":"tag-israel-hamas-war","19":"tag-palestinian-territories-government","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-prema-racing","22":"tag-robert-shwartzman","23":"tag-russia","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-st-petersburg","26":"tag-ukraine-government","27":"tag-vladimir-putin","28":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","29":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114531825452187880","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}