Teams to 'discuss' Bahrain - this ain't over yet

Hopefully we can get a situation where the Scuderia is the only competitive team that lands in Bahrain and we can get a Ferrari 1 - 2 by default.... shades of Bridgestone and Indy!

 

I'd prefer them not to go there. F1 is all about money, but maybe the teams have some tiny bit of conscience left...

 

I'm sure Branson would send his cars too to get one on the podium. Once in a lifetime chance

 

IMO Bahrain will not happen and BE knows it. This is his way of returning a favor to his friends in the Gulf.

 

With up-front apologies to Steve for mentioning him, Mad Max has just weighed in:

Cheers,
Ian

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/92002

 

I've always admired Bernie, but there is just no getting away from it this time: he's lost it. This decision will prove to be his undoing I believe. Here's an editorial from a UK source ....sums it up really:

Bahrain Madness
The decision to summarily insert the Bahrain GP in the Indian GP date raises more than a few issues. We'll get onto the fundamental one, the human rights issue in a minute, Max Mosley and Mark Webber have already spoken about them in clear and unequivocal terms.

From a sheer logistical point of view, the teams will have booked flights and hotels for the Indian date already. F1 fans in the subcontinent will have cleared the date in their diary. How can the FIA just give their GP date away...?

....unless, the race was never going to make it on time in the first place. Writing on Sunday there has been precious little reported discontent from the Indian GP organisers so far and given the events of the Commonwealth Games last year (the Games' site was barely finished in time and there was massive criticism and resignations etc) the country could hardly afford two sporting debacles in successive years.

If the FIA really wanted to see the Bahrain race as a way of "uniting the country" surely it would be better to have it as the last race on the calendar. That would give more time for proper reconciliation, wouldn't disrupt the Indian GP plans and the Bahrainis can fund the teams' travel.

December Finish
Except none of the teams want to end the season in December - whether the 4th or 11th - having started out in January and been on the road ever since.

As Mercedes' Ross Brawn has said, they'll start to lose people from the industry. And now they've been given a 21-date calendar for 2012 (from which one race will have to go, as the teams have agreed 20 races and no more). Hardly an incentive is it?

The idea that the last race of the season will turn out to be an Abu Dhabi spectacular on the lines of Webber versus Alonso versus Hamilton versus Vettel in 2010 will have long disappeared, Vettel will have won it quite a few races before.

Whch means that if Bahrain goes ahead, the Indian GP might drop off the calendar entirely. Can't see Vijay Mallya being happy about that...

Max and Mark
Max Mosley has spoken without rancour about the WMSC decision that you can bet wouldn't have happened on his watch. Writing in the Daily Telegraph Max said:

"Surely the line has to be drawn when a sporting event is not mere entertainment in a less-than-perfect country, but is being used by an oppressive regime to camouflage its actions. If a sport accepts this role, it becomes a tool of government. If Formula 1 allows itself to be used in this way in Bahrain, it will share the regime's guilt as surely as if it went out and helped brutalise unarmed protesters."

Mark Webber - not surprisingly for a man who's known for saying what he thinks - was forthright on the subject

"My opinion is unchanged since I was first asked about this in late February," he wrote on his website. "Even though a decision has been made, I'll be highly surprised if the Bahrain Grand Prix goes ahead this year. In my personal opinion, the sport should have taken a much firmer stance earlier this year rather than constantly delaying its decision in hope of being able to re-schedule it in 2011.

"It's obvious that the parties involved have struggled to reach a decision but sadly I feel that they still haven't made the right one. Like it or not, F1 and sport in general isn't above having a social responsibility and conscience. I hope F1 is able to return to Bahrain eventually but now isn't the right time."

Currently the advice for British nationals heading to Bahrain is this: "We advise British nationals in Bahrain to maintain a high level of security awareness and to exercise caution, particularly in public places and on the roads, and avoid large crowds and demonstrations."

Hardly conducive to a relaxed sporting occasion...

 

Well, if Vettel wins the next 4-5 races, i don't see the point of going to Boh-ring.

 

Silly geese. Talking as if it might actually happen

 

Obviously Max want's to point out the difference between China and Bahrain,



Max continues,

"Surely the line has to be drawn when a sporting event is not mere entertainment in a less-than-perfect country, but is being used by an oppressive regime to camouflage its actions," he continued.

"If a sport accepts this role, it becomes a tool of government. If Formula One allows itself to be used in this way in Bahrain, it will share the regime's guilt as surely as if it went out and helped brutalise unarmed protesters."


http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/05062011/58/mosley-adds-voice-bahrain-gp-dissent.html

 

How many of the scheduled 2012 GP's could finish that sentence...

 

Ha ha no worries Ian..

That skunk Mosley would know only all to well about dictating.

IMO it just serves a purpose to say that the FIA and Bernie are not the ones calling the shots on whether they can have a Bahrain GP...so as not to be seen as the ones upsetting them.

So let the teams take the rap.

Cash is king.

 

As much as I dislike it once Bernie started selling GPs to governments the sport became intrinsically political. Once you provide a bully pulpit to any regime with the money you lose the right to claim a moral standing.
In any case what credibility or legitimacy did F1 have left to lose?

 

From J Saward's Blog.

Personally I don't want to make a comment.

This is an article from The Independent in London.

This is the account of one Shia member of staff at the Bahrain International Circuit, which hosts the Grand Prix, who was arrested in April. Still suffering from injuries inflicted by his interrogators, he has now left the country. He wishes to remain anonymous and is referred to as AB throughout:

“AB’s ordeal began when three cars full of security forces arrived at the BIC offices on the morning of 7 April. They went floor by floor searching for people whose names were on their list. When they arrived at the floor of AB’s office, they called out his name. They immediately took him away, beating him as they went along the corridor. At least 23 other BIC staff were arrested that day, he says.

The motor race employees were blindfolded and handcuffed using electric cable and were taken to Riffa West police station. Once there, they were led to a room where the group were all beaten with sticks and cables for hours. They were accused of having celebrated the fact that the Formula One had been cancelled earlier in the year. AB denies this, saying that as an employee of BIC, he depends for his livelihood on the events held at BIC, particularly the Formula One.

AB was taken to an interrogation room. He was interrogated about the number of times he went to Pearl Roundabout, the centre of pro-democracy protests. He said he had been there twice, but the officer forced him to say that he had been there 20 times. At one point an officer put AB’s head between his legs and flipped his body over, and he lost consciousness. Beatings continued. The verbal abuse he experienced was full of anti-Shia sectarian hatred. The officers called him “son of muta’a” – a temporary marriage permitted in Shia Islam – and “son of a *****”. At around 7pm he was told to strip naked and was again beaten severely. The cable around his hands became extremely tight because of severe swelling. The police station was over-flowing with at least 20 people sleeping on the floor in one cell with barely enough space to lie down. They were not given blankets and the air-conditioning was kept very low so it was too cold to sleep.

This treatment lasted for three days until they were transferred to Dry Dock prison, beatings continuing all the while. At Dry Dock the situation was much better and there was no more torture. AB was given sun cream and told to sit in the sun so that injuries from his torture wounds could heal. He was freed after 20 days and told to sign papers banning him from talking to the media.

Today his hands tremble and he suffers from numbness in his arms as well as anxiety attacks and paranoia.

 

We might still have a Ferrari 1 - 2 this year after all.

Bahrain is the best decision the FIA ever made!!! Good job Todt!!!

 

Unbelievable..

 

It's not so much the moral aspect of holding a GP in Bahrain at the end of season that trouble me, but the security aspect.

How can everyone be sure that in a Middle East country torn with social upheaval, it is safe to organise a motor race in the middle of riots, demos, etc... How can they be certain that it will not become a showcase for a massive terrorist attack, for example?

All the ingredients will be there for wrong-doers to exploit. This is a very turbulent region at the moment, and Ecclestone proposes to bring his circus in town like if nothing happened. To me, this is careless, and F1 can perfectly do without a Bahrain GP.

 

As I said earlier. Not to worry. It won't be held. Bernie has provided his friends in the Gulf a temporary fig leaf of normalcy in turbulent times. There is no way in Hades it will be run.

 

I agree, Bernie plays politics better than anyone that actually is an elected official. IMHO India needs the extra time, and this is the only way for him to give them more time to get ready and to appease the middle east(on the surface). This way the teams really don't have a choice, Bahrain saves face, and the race will run next year.

 

Where has the political outrage been in all the years since 2004? I strongly doubt anything is really different now, except that the gov't is being less effective in suppressing dissent.

The teams are worried about their security only. Any other claims are just window dressing and smoke.

 

+1

 

Interesting:

http://sniffpetrol.com/2011/06/06/f1-a-history-of-sensitivity/

 

True. Don't forget the money though. There's nothing that the F1 crowd respects more than money these days and there's a lot of it in the Gulf. While there's no way they'll be going to Bahrain in the interim they will pay the courtesy of playing along.

As for morals in F1, that horse left the barn long ago. About the time it became more of a business than a sport.

 

+1
Correct, cash is king.

 

Yep, and precisely the reason why it'll happen. It isn't in Bernie's nature to leave something at the table.........
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