A round-up from JAonF1: an account of the violence "according to reports," protestors wearing Ferrari gear, the teams' last-minute backup plans - to be instigated during the Chinese GP weekend, and Ecclestone's recent comment that "he has no problem with F1 being used by the country’s rulers to send out a message that the country is moving forwards." The issue for Ecclestone, of course, is the same as last year: he can't cancel the event because the race organisers would then be free of their obligation to pay for it. He has to put them in a position where they cancel it, and are financially liable for doing so.
Yes, I read that too. At least someone from inside the sport is speaking up and Damon is ever the diplomat: "Is F1 playing brinkmanship for purely financial reasons while people are putting their lives in peril to protest against this event?" is the rhetorical question to which the answer is a resounding 'Yes' but as you say, Bernie won't cancel because he wants his cash.
What the hell are some people thinking, "Bernie" why is profit ? desirable over lives, put simply, even more people are probably going to die if the Bahrain GP goes ahead. I don't understand the internal politics of Bahrain, but clearly there are major issue's that require resolution before they even consider holding a ****ing motor race. Why not hold one in Syria, perhaps it would solve their problems !!!!! Baffled and bewildered, Ernie.
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I just feel Bahrain shouldn't hold a race, due to it being a very boring track. i'm not having an opinion over the human rights issues, as i don't know all the facts, and don't want to say something daft.
That's very honest of you, Kyle. But unfortunately, a boring track is not much of a reason to say Bahrain should not stage a round of the World Championship. The political matters are FAR more important; and that is the reason F1 should postpone a return to this venue indefinitely.
I was reading all around this debate today and yesterday and I came to the same conclusion as Prisoner Monkeys on F1 fanatic. F1 shouldn't go their on the grounds of safety and not pick sides in this debate as they dont have clear information with regard to this issue. This mass protesting with Bahrain went quiet after the News got bored of it and though a lot of "stories" are coming out, me as a typical uninformed person with this subject has no idea how accurate any of this stuff is. Just because a child walks around with a T-shirt saying "blood will be on your hands" doesn't make their cause the more just, for all we know that's just a minority trying to cause trouble, something similair to the london riots, for all we know! I'm not going to stand here and deny anything is happening as that would be unwise since that's not the case in Bahrain, the two sides aren't happy with each other and it needs to be discussed worldwide with pressure from other countries to negotiate. Yeah I agree these two sides need to sit down openly and try to sort this **** out, but I'm not the PM and the lazy git should be doing his job and expressing our dislike of stories of doctors being put into prison who were only trying to help the wounded and people being shot with live rounds. But even I could make up stories to make my cause more important, "my dog was eaten by a goat, please help me topple his oppressive empire" I don't know if these people are just bitching about something else now, for all I know, I don't live there. I cant see what's going wrong with this country and I'm not interested one bit, since if I was to worry about eveything in this world I would never be able to look after myself. So I trust the consensues of the F1 community, the FIA and F1 teams to make the correct decision on this issue as I'm very bored with all this talk.
Two points on that. Firstly, I share the sentiment but from a different angle: those pictures tell me that the opposition/protestors are using F1 to draw attention to their cause just as manipulatively as the government is using it to justify its position. "Fair play," you might say - why shouldn't they? The problem for F1 is that part of what Ecclestone sells is global political legitimacy and now that one of his customers wants to activate that implicit clause in the agreement he is contractually bound to honour it. You can guarantee one thing: the same people who are protesting against the GP now will want it back PDQ if the opposition overthrows the ruling royal family and takes control of the country. Secondly, this is not "just a minority trying to cause trouble, something similair to the london riots." An estimated 250,000 people rallied in protest as recently as 9 March. That's 20% of Bahrain's population. Even if that's an overestimate, it's still a different thing entirely to the picture of "a few kids throwing molotov cocktails at the police" that the Bahrain authorities try to paint. It's a live, volatile and politically charged situation in which F1 is being used as a football. For me, the argument isn't about this year's GP or whether it'll be safe to go back next year. The right thing to do is to cancel the contract in its entirety, whatever the cost, and get out of the argument.
It's clear now that the protesting continued but, you're right, the media moved on to Libya, Yemen and now Syria where the impact was/is more dramatic. However, for those who continue to protest there is one weekend coming up when the eyes of the World will be on Bahrain again: if you were in their place, what would you do?
