Bahrain GP situation: postponed, reinstated, cancelled

[Crucial_Xtreme]

La Gazzetta dello Sport says the Bahrain GP could be canceled on Thursday.




rough translation:

Ready in Bahrain
7 days of protests

Is the threat of
Opponents of Al
Wefaq. Organized the "three
day of wrath. "the
GP back in doubt?

A week of protests
up to the Bahrain GP. It is the
the threat of al-Wefaq, the main
Shiite opposition force
the reign of the Sunni Al Khalifa,
who wanted the F.1 in
Persian Gulf. Around the capital
Manama are announced
events from today until Sunday.
In particular, the airport tomorrow
of Bahrain, where it is
forecast the arrival of the first means
teams. Pilots and technicians
Ferrari will leave only
Wednesday. officially
are not provided escort services
or special precautions,
for example not to wear
official uniforms. But the controls of
police outside the hotel and along
roads will be strengthened.
The critical anti-government coalition,
that calls for reform
democratic, has ruled out a sit-in
around the Sakhir circuit
but the group of 'Revolution
February 14 'launched
"Three days of rage" to GP
to denounce the repression
which killed over 40 people
in a year. the associations
Human Rights have criticized
the decision of the FIA
allow the dispute of the GP,
canceled in 2011. And last night
the last item in the collection at the airport
in Shanghai, where there was
Fom already departing staff
Manama, is that the race could
even be more
canceled, a decision
This could be taken
Thursday.

[sAx]

I can't believe it but Hill just changed his view again. This is the second U-turn in three weeks. The man is spineless as a ventriloquist puppet.

This whole episode leaves a very bad taste in the mouth. Not only Bernie but the head of the FiA, McLaren, parts of the press and some ex WDCs are in the al Khalifas pockets. Disgusting!!

Only the very biggest of [insert gentle plural pejorative here]..."?

Idiots? Gentle enough?

sAx

[ArchAngel]

La Gazzetta dello Sport says the Bahrain GP could be canceled on Thursday.

Pure speculation, but perhaps the FiA, Bernie & the teams are already privy to this eventuality, and are merely putting up a front of willingness to adhere to their contractual obligation to race, while knowing that escalating protests & violence would eventually force the Al Khalifa regime to take the decision away from F1's hands and cancel the GP?

...I understand there was an international golf tournament that went ahead and no protestations of any kind occurred...

It's shameful & idiotic how Bernie (and the FiA) allowed F1 to become a divisive political symbol in Bahrain's internal strife. Years from now after the situation there has regained some semblance of normalcy, majority of the locals will still continue to eye F1 with disdain over perceived political alliances.

[Maelstrom]

Bernie probably thinks that the protests will pull the eyes of te world to the situation and give them loads of free publicity.

[mzivtins]

Bernie probably thinks that the protests will pull the eyes of te world to the situation and give them loads of free publicity.

Didn't Bernie say something along these lines? You know, how 'F1 SHOULD go there' to pull the eyes of the world to see whats going on there...

He has a point, but no one will see anything outside of yet another F1 race with barely filled stands.

Sorry to pull the point away from those suffering, but my point is that there were already reason that Bahrain should never host an F1 GP, so a sane person might conclude that political instability would be the final nail on the coffin... i wish i knew some F1 drivers personally so i could here exactly what they are thinking.

This GP is certainly going to have everyone on the edge of their seat!

[blokkie]

Bernie probably thinks that the protests will pull the eyes of te world to the situation and give them loads of free publicity.

+1

On saturday before qualy Jake humphry from BBC had a interview with bernie about this . One of his explenations was that he can give the protesters a forum/media coverage which would be good.

For your convenience ... here is the interview :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th_TYaKveqY[/youtube]

[Richard]

We heard the same arguments about sports and entertainment people going to apartheid South Africa.

If this is Bahrain's show of unity then what about the Shia staff at the circuit who were summarily dismissed last year? They have not been re-instated according to the last report I read on the subject.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Bernie probably thinks that the protests will pull the eyes of te world to the situation and give them loads of free publicity.

Well there is a modern adage that goes: There's no such thing as bad publicity.

But this is just plain raw! Forget the political back drop, as F1 visits states that shame even Bahrain and will continue to do so.
My concern here is that there is a clear and present danger to anyone who is participating.

I have heard in the last few minutes via Al Jazeera and a couple of other international sources that the GP could in fact be cancelled as late as Thursday.
All it will take will be a couple of mortars/petrol bombs/random act of violence to go off within the vicinity of the Sakhir circuit to kill the idea of a GP.

[myurr]

It's shameful & idiotic how Bernie (and the FiA) allowed F1 to become a divisive political symbol in Bahrain's internal strife. Years from now after the situation there has regained some semblance of normalcy, majority of the locals will still continue to eye F1 with disdain over perceived political alliances.

Actually I believe that the reason F1 has become a political symbol is down to those who called for the race to be cancelled and the media. The former are guilty of politicising F1 by calling for the FIA to cancel the race based on the politics of the region. And the media are guilty for blaming implicating F1 in justifying violence by their mere presence, rather than decrying the use of violence (by either side) in the first place.

We heard the same arguments about sports and entertainment people going to apartheid South Africa.

If this is Bahrain's show of unity then what about the Shia staff at the circuit who were summarily dismissed last year? They have not been re-instated according to the last report I read on the subject.

At the same time had Bahrain lost their GP last year and the return wasn't on the cards would we even be discussing the situation now?

If F1 is to be a political tool where the race is taken away from regimes that we don't approve of then expect the Chinese and Indian GPs to be taken away as well. They both have state sponsored murder on a much wider scale, plenty of poverty and exploitation, etc. And if we're going to judge races on political ideals then whose morals do we use? Judged from certain quarters then why should Britain or the USA have races? If you want to look at the safety of staff and participants then why does Brazil have a GP? So if F1 is to be a political tool where do you draw the line?

Do I agree with the ruling regime in Bahrain? Hell no, but I'm not naive enough to think that them losing the GP is going to make any difference, and nor do I believe them to be the worst regime on the grid. I'd rather F1 was in that country bringing the media spotlight with it than having it be just another forgotten country that once had a GP.

[myurr]

Bernie probably thinks that the protests will pull the eyes of te world to the situation and give them loads of free publicity.

Well there is a modern adage that goes: There's no such thing as bad publicity.

But this is just plain raw! Forget the political back drop, as F1 visits states that shame even Bahrain and will continue to do so.
My concern here is that there is a clear and present danger to anyone who is participating.

I have heard in the last few minutes via Al Jazeera and a couple of other international sources that the GP could in fact be cancelled as late as Thursday.
All it will take will be a couple of mortars/petrol bombs/random act of violence to go off within the vicinity of the Sakhir circuit to kill the idea of a GP.

And the media and self righteous will pounce on it to say that the GP should never have been on the cards, rather than condemn those who perpetrate violence on their brothers.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

@ Myurr

Agreed.

Nothing wrong with peaceful protest, but the threat of violence to people not involved in the uprising for participating in what is a sport is perplexing to me.

Now I dont want to be seen getting on a soap box and criticising any side of the coin...But... If people are genuinely being oppressed, the last thing they should try do is threaten with actual physical violence non-Bahraini's.

The protests have been co-ordinated to an extent and this leads me to believe there is an intelligence behind the movement.
Surely, this intellect would know that any act of aggression on a non-Bahraini national would be a fatal blow to its international credibility.

Overnight it would lose any semblance of international sympathy. Syria is a case in point for the oppressed.
The rebel factions were backed by the west, and only a chinese/russian UN resolution veto spared Assad from global action....but the clock ticks for him yet.

Bahrain's oppressed need to study this carefully, because perhaps they can learn from this without threats of violence to F1.
This does not excuse the fact that F1 is there/willing to be there in the first place.

[Crucial_Xtreme]

Ok there are two F1 journos already in Bahrain. If you're on Twitter I suggest giving them a look. Very interesting stuff. Lee McKenzie said today after seeing Ian Parkes tweets, she's worried.

Police marching on protestors


Here's a cordon of about 14 police cars and 50 policemen blocking one road out of Salmabad.


And here's an abandoned street where the locals threw down bricks from a.building site and set a fire to block police


One protester preparing his petrol bomb getting ready to do battle.


Hundreds of women joined the earlier march. The one woman in the foreground here prepared as she is wearing a gas mask


In this pic you can see the locals with petrol bombs in hand ready for their fight with the police



All words & images are courtesy of:

https://twitter.com/#!/ianparkesf1

https://twitter.com/#!/byronf1

THIS protest, though, was nothing to do with F1. It just happens to be this week. chants were "Down with Hamad". Bahrain not a happy place.

[strad]

At the same time had Bahrain lost their GP last year and the return wasn't on the cards would we even be discussing the situation now?

Here is the real problem from Bernie and F1s point of view.
We pissed them off by cancelling last year..What do you think they will do if it is cancelled again?
They'll say goodbye and don't come back. And that is what worries Bernie..Not only did he lose money last year and this year, he will lose down the road.
Money is all Bernie and FOM care about.
I find it interesting that there are so many on here who don't care about the downtrodden and abused.

[Richard]

that is what worries Bernie..Not only did he lose money last year and this year, he will lose down the road.

As I recall FOM did get their fee last year.

[Giblet]

He gets it for each year they are under contract, and it increases incrementally year on year whether they hold the race or not AFAIK.