Damon Hill is a pretty clever bloke. He has done great things at Silverstone over the years and has great credibility in the British motor racing fraternity. He is well-respected by the British F1 media – who are often seen as the ones who have stirred up questions about the wisdom of F1 returning to Bahrain. He is deemed by the industry to have a great deal of integrity and has never been afraid to speak his mind.
Thus it is most interesting to see the 1996 Formula 1 World Champion nailing his colours very firmly to the Bahrain Grand Prix, which he says should go ahead. Hill recently visited Bahrain with FIA President Jean Todt and reckons that the time is right for F1 to return, despite the fact that human rights groups say that a race would simply be a propaganda event, designed to show the world that all is well in Bahrain, while mainstream news outlets constantly report trouble on the streets. Look at the news wires today and you see reports of riot police chasing anti-government protesters out of the centre of Manama, but at the same time the second Bahrain Air Show is due to get underway this week, and reports of constitutional reforms being pushed through that are intended to lead to greater accountability, ordering the rebuilding of mosques previously demolished by the government, and appointing two distinguished lawyers from the UK to look at the country’s judicial system. The government has said it is reinstating those who lost their jobs as a result of the protests nearly a year ago and there are policemen going on trial for abuses. These moves are all aimed at convincing the Bahraini population – and the world at large – that the country is serious about changing the way things are done. The reforms are obviously designed to deprive the opposition of its moderate supporters, who were upset at the heavy-handed way in which the authorities dealt with the unrest.
One of the problems now is that the official story put out by the authorities during the upheavals does not tally at all with the report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, which basically confirmed what human rights groups, the opposition and foreign media had been saying at the time. So convincing the sceptics that this time it is different is a harder task than it should be.
Hill is no fool, however, and he surely understands the dangers of speaking out unless he is completely sure that what he is saying is a good idea.
“I do not like seeing people shot and brutalised,” Hill told The Times newspaper. “I was frustrated last year that Formula 1 did not raise its voice against what was happening. But a lot has changed there since then. It is clear that the situation in Bahrain is better understood and I don’t think anyone would want to go back to Bahrain if there was suffering just because of a Grand Prix.
“I listened to a lot of people there, including eye-witnesses. I believe they are making change for the better. There is no question they have issues, but every country has issues; we had riots here in the UK not so long ago.
“This time, Formula 1 can go to Bahrain with a clear conscience and not just as a tool for some sort of cover-up.”
The fear remains that the Formula 1 race will be used by the opposition as an opportunity to make a big splash around the world.
There is little doubt that Hill’s remarks did not happen by accident, and it is fair to say that he was probably selected to go to Bahrain specifically because of his perceived integrity and credibility.
I was there a few years ago and saw first hand that there were rioters trying to use the F1 race to draw attention to their cause. It was hard to miss them as they were rioting outside my hotel. If I were in the opposition I would see the race as an opportunity to be exploited and would endeavour to organise marches on the circuit, which – inevitably – the authorities would have to react to.
My gut feeling, therefore, is that it is still too early for F1 to go back to Bahrain, but if the sport wishes to take the risk and go ahead then it must be willing to face any consequences that comes from such an action. It is is worth noting, however, that fears about non-governmental organisations condemning the sport have lessened somewhat in recent days, not least because of the support for the Bahrain government from the President of the United Nations General Assembly Nasser bin Abdulaziz Al-Nasr, from Qatar.
joeblogsf1 
Joe,
Do you feel that the fact that Damon Hill is contracted to cover Bahrain (as one of his ten races for Sky this year), undermines his credibility a little?
No
I hope the FIA doesn’t put you and your colleagues in a position of having to make a difficult choice if the race does go ahead despite evidence of continuing ‘tension’ if that turns out to be the case. Is there a point where personal views or politics mean that you might choose to miss your first GP in a very long time?
The question is not really whether there will be trouble if there is a race. That is inevitable. The question is really whether F1 is willing to take that risk. If not, Bahrain has nonetheless begun to make people think that there is a more moderate future. Perhaps there will be a race, perhaps not, but the story has positive value for Bahrain nonetheless.
It is possible of course that well in advance of the run up to the race dissenters, their families and colleagues will be too busy to protest. Some may even elect to visit their relatives abroad.
Remarkable Hill would say this, Joe. Seems to me he’s let himself be fooled by what his hosts wanted him to see and hear. As you already write down; one look at the newswires and some understanding of the politics there and one knows not “a lot has changed there since then”. Apart from ongoing crackdowns and dodgy sentences for demonstrators, the reforms as proposed by the king are a joke. Giving a parliament more authority is worth nothing when the main opposition groups are not in that same parliament anymore. To me, it’s not a question of F1 being a tool to make any point for the Bahraini. F1 should not want to drive in countries where human rights aren’t respected, period.
No, I doubt it. Damon is cleverer than that.
“F1 should not want to drive in countries where human rights aren’t respected, period.” A valid opinion, but F1 / the FIA have never made much noise about human rights.
Want a fun example? Nah, skip China and all that lot. Let’s take a trip down memory lane, southbound, to South Africa under Apartheid.
FIFA suspended South Africa in 1963.
IAAF suspended South Africa in 1970.
IOC uninvited South Africa for the 1964 and 1968 Olympics, then suspended them fully in 1970.
It took until 1985 for the South African Grand Prix to be a political controversy and that was because foreign government pressured their own people, not because the FIA thought it was a bad idea.
Whilst I am certain that Damon Hill is no fool, I do have to wonder what sort of eye witnesses he spoke to. After all, Carlos Gracia spoke to some too but they didn’t exactly prove to be reliable.
Is it known how much involvement, if any, the Bahraini government had in this visit? I haven’t seen much indication one way or the other, which to a cynic like me seems a tad suspicious. Surely if it was a (relatively) independent visit he would be stressing that aspect?
Hmm, first Sky, now Bahrain, maybe he can get a job advising Tesco while he’s at it, or finding funding for the new royal yacht . . .
Seriously, however bright the chap is, he doesn’t score too well in the ‘Hoodwinking The Public’ category, does he?
How do you know?
My point is that those who might usually respect and care about what DH thinks are probably the same people who would find it hard to take his views here at face value, and would be puzzled at what’s behind it all. One of his good points, to me, has always been his apparent straightness, so him sayiing that something that still looks significantly dodgy is absolutely safe is very odd.
Now you are in a situation where you’ll have to choose whether to believe DH who, as you said, has at least seemed straightforward, or main-stream media, which probably needs to sensationalize stories to get more readers.
Just because he said something that you don’t agree with, doesn’t automatically mean that he is no influenced.
Siim,
I would agree that with a national and local stories, and ones that draw the public interest such as the shipwreck in Italy, the media often does amp up the volume and sensationalize things, but how much general issue is there around the globe re: Baharain, granted it isn’t like it’s Iran or Syria, but it’s scarcely in the same category as most first world countries with regard to reaction to protesters, and human rights.
Although there might be some benefit in having a race, would there be other journalists apart from those who cover motorsport?
If Damon went with president Jean Todt I cannot imagine that they went anywhere in any capacity other than honoured guests/VIPs. So to me it means the same as last year’s visit.
Had Damon spent a week incognito as a tourist with his family, then fair enough, but I think we are a long way from that.
The king is doing all the right things, but he has to overcome centuries of prejudice and “attitude” that is deeply entrenched in all the systems that run the Kingdom. Give him another couple of years without the army or police being used against the people they are supposed to protect.
However all this may well be academic, it is highly likely that the USA will attack Iran this year and that Iran, itself, a major arms manufacturer will retaliate. Bahrain is a major US naval base. ………
While I have greatly reduced confidence that our gov’t will take sensible steps to avoid war, I do have confidence that the Navy doesn’t want hostile missiles flying around near its facilities. Thus, in the event that we do something stupid again, I expect the intended targets will be a 2nd-order issue to be addressed only after they have erased pre-fired missiles. I expect they are now and have been cataloging their whereabouts.
“I expect they are now and have been cataloging their whereabouts.”
Ah yes, that’ll be Chuck Norris, Vin Diesel and co! (Not to mention Tom Cruise and the IM force)
No doubt the SAS have been there a while too. I wonder if these chaps trip over each other in the field
Maybe the Iraqis are paranoid with good reason.
Well, I don’t know about now, but as of a couple years ago maps which showed the location of our military bases indicated that Iran was virtually surrounded by nations that had American military bases in it.
Now, I fully understand why people are v. nervous about the gov’t of Iran. I trust don’t trust them either. What I don’t understand is how anybody can think they don’t have ample reason to be paranoid.
Most folks here just don’t realize. The people in our so-called news media would rather talk about Sarah Palin or Paris Hilton or boat wrecks or whatever.
Yea Hill takes job with News Corp then a few days later is towing the UK / US line that everything’s much much better there now. It’s not a coincidence!
I presume he didn’t see the tear gassing of peaceful protesters earlier this month then? Quite different from UK riots, these people were marching peacefully because a 15 year old had been killed after being hit in the face by a tear gas canister.
There are countries in the middle east where the UK and US want regime change, Bahrain is certainly not one of them, amongst other things it’s home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet!
Oh and many of those protesters just let out of jail work at the F1 circuit apparently.
I had a look into that, the reports indicated that said 15-year-old’s body also showed numerous burns which were seen as inconsistent with the tear gassing but really quite consistent with making and lobbing Molotov cocktails.
It changes the image somewhat.
Depends on the source of the information.
Formula One is about evolution.
Perhaps both parties in Bahrain should use F1 as a way of promoting the positive changes that are occuring in their country.
There’s enough politics in the paddock without getting involved in a countries internal affairs.
It would be trivially easy for the authorities to manage things
such that Hill was not able to gather complete or accurate information on the
conduct of those authorities. It’s not a question of Hill’s intelligence or
abilities but a question of whether the authorities could manage things
such that Hill saw what they wanted him to see. Anyone with a good knowledge of how things run in the real world will conclude that it would be easy to see to it that Hill would be prevented from seeing the true nature of the situation.
It wouldn’t be the first time a Brit has come home with a glowing report which turned out to be grossly inaccurate. Those who recall the events leading
up to WWII will remember Neville Chamberlain’s famously inaccurate
proclamation of “peace in our time”.
The idea that human rights violations will prevent F1 from holding a race
is in itself a bit of a bad joke. I am from the US, where the government has been snatching people up all over the world and taking them to secret prisons for some years now, yet there are two F1 events proposed for the US,
and no one is protesting any of it. This F1 scene is not about morals or ethics,
it is about big money, and frankly the suggestion that F1 will, could, or even should act as some sort of moral watchdog is absurd, in the same way that
“green” technology in F1 is absurd. Sure, some people will be fooled, but
not all of us will be.
I think Bahrain needs F1 a lot more than F1 needs Bahrain, and that the world of F1 could and would do just fine without ever again racing in Bahrain.
I concur with rpaco’s opinion that things in the region will probably
heat up such that a race won’t happen regardless of the Bahraini government’s attempts at damage control.
One last thing : I find the notion that Damon Hill could determine whether
the situation was really improved to be an insult to the intelligence of the informed reader. We are not children, Joe. I used to work for a government agency I cannot name here, and I know more about the workings of power at the highest levels than most of the people involved in the bread & circus
game of F1. There are things Damon Hill will not ever be privy to, and
many of those things are very monstrous indeed.
Godwin’s Law as applied to F1 blogs. I really wasn’t sure I’d ever see the day.
Seems like most disagree with Damon’s comments and so do I. I find his credibility has gone down a few points after this. Anyone with contacts in Bahrain should know what is going on there and it is not “better”. F1 should be in Bahrain. F1 is out to make money, not make the world a better place. Most of us would like F1 to stand for something better, but business is business.
No reason to diss Mr. Hill for what seems to me to be a very premature conclusion. If he’s wrong, then all the negatives will prove to be true. If he’s right, then another year will demonstrate how right he was.
IMO, the sensible course is to reassure Bahrain that F1 will be happy to return but cannot do so until a more substantive body of evidence shows that they have indeed made the necessary corrections. So far, we have bits of promising things, but it is simply impossible to demonstrate appropriate corrections in so short a time.
Joe, I have read today’s Times interview with Hill. I have also read a few edited newswire reports of the same article, and they do come across a little different than what he said and how he said it. If correct then he was very vocal about the race last year, yet all we read was about Webber and his opinion. Hill was pretty hard on the people running Bahrain. He hasn’t completely changed his views only from what I see he is saying let’s give them a chance to show they have improved. Read between the lines he is saying this is your last chance.
I have to admit that I was rather surprised by Hill – clearly a Good Guy and no idiot – asserting this. That was this morning. On the way home NPR had this interview with the guy that’s going to be training the Bahrain police force. Made me question my assumptions. Worth a listen (~7 min) http://www.npr.org/2012/01/18/145413376/timoney-discusses-bahraini-police-force
(Extrememly sorry, Joe, if the previous comment was deleted in line with your moderation of the blog. When I clicked ‘post comment’, my comment didn’t show up for ‘awaiting moderation’, as it usually is, so I’m posting again).
Keith, I found these articles at the time of his appointment being announced:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/03/bahrain-miami-model-policing
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5286.htm
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2007-09-20/news/john-timoney-america-s-worst-cop/
They’re quite disturbing, especially given that this person has been appointed to advise a police force implicated in multiple crimes over the past year, and, according to frequent news reports, continue to act in that fashion.
On topic, I am yet to be convinced that this little more than crude propoganda, although this time it looks as if it might just hold together until the Friday of the Race Weekend, whereupon something shocking will robably happen to jolt a few F1 luminaries to their senses (besides a sense of short term profit, of course).
I think we have to trust DH’s opinion on this, the idea that taking a job from Sky would somehow tint his recollections of what is happening in Bahrain is clearly nonsense. He has been there, we haven’t, he says that he has spoken to lots of people on both sides and I believe him, I have no reason not to.
His opinion carries weight but the decision is not his to make, however it must be assumed that his travelling companion would have reached the same conclusions. Maybe they are right, maybe the Bahrain Government has started real change in the country, maybe they should be encouraged down this path by getting their GP back.
The bahrain Internation Airshow has a fraction of the prestige and media attention of F1, yet Bahrain is burning right now.. literally… “smoke protests” going on with smoke columns reaching the airshow all the way deep south in the desert.
F1 coming to Bahrain will be a mistake on so many words, from a protestor here on the ground.. am letting you know that the people had ENOUGH, none of the reccomendations of BICI report are being implemented in fact the opposite is going on, with more deaths taking place and the increasing element of sexual assault by the riot cops on KIDS!! Joe… do your best in avoiding a potential disaster by having the race staged here.. I can no longer stand by the claim that the protestors will remain peaceful.. we already have several big villages, notably the island of Sitra in which they declared “holy defense” of their villages starting January 24th.. take that the way you may my friend.
We are 12 months on from the so called “Arab spring” and so far, with the exception I think of Bahrain the individuals in each countries are worse off. We see across the Arab world and in some of the peripheral secular countries such as Turkey a trend towards a more hard line and less tolerant world. Not a good situation, and one ignored by our media.
Egypt still has a military government, and in all likelihood if the elections are held the Muslim brotherhood will win and this will destabilise the area. A big problem. In Tunisia people are finding that their tolerant secular world has now gone. They have removed one tyrant but got another more insidious one. Again in the main ignored by our media. The people of Libya are finding their situation moving in the same way.
Anyone who has lived and worked in the middle east see’s what goes on and are always amazed at the disparity between what they see and what gets reported. I was in Saudi Arabia when a huge bomb went off. It killed many Saudi women and children, but it was only the 3 Filipino and a Sri Lankan or something like that that got mentioned. My neighbour was a nurse and had to sign papers saying she would not mention anything to anyone. You see they cover up the fact that an Arab killed other Arabs whilst trying to kill Americans.
But the change these days is the western press tends to be bias towards reporting only those atrocities perpetrated by the authorities and ignoring those of the so called oppressed. Bahrain can not be compared with the likes of Syria or Libya, because they have never supported terrorism, and their people have always been free to come and go, and speak their mind.
But the one thing the Sunnis are very weary of are the Shiite Muslims and Persians. And historically this is because Persia, now Iran has always claimed Bahrain and always fermented discontent. And far from ensuring that their readers understand the long running issues, and the many attempts in the past to rectify this our Western press give a very one sided view of the situation, and from the many comments I have read on this subject here and across a variety of blogs most display that they know very little about Bahrain or the middle east at all.
I think the race should go ahead, because if we in the west don’t support our friends, then the simmering changes occurring in the world and in this area in particular will just accelerate forward and what we will eventually get, our ancestors may not forgive us for.
TimW
If that is the case lets give it another year and see the proof, by actions and not wise words or well looked after visitors.
personally I would like to see more progress made and another year go by before F1 goes back just to be sure, however Damon and Jean have been there and seen for themselves whats going on. They say they have seen the full picture and spoken to protestors, it’s clear the Bahraini government have made changes and maybe having the GP back would be good for the whole country.
I think that this may happen
RShack
Wise words
Joe, has Jean Todt published any comments? I find it strange that BOTH go for a visit and the only public comments come from Damon???
Propaganda is a complicated business
According to the BBC only three of the Bahrain circuit officials have gone back to work. Whilst all were invited back, it was with conditions that were unacceptable. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16628942
Did Damon speak to the guys now refusing to go back to work?
Can you interview Damon on Skype please Joe and get some detail on who he actually spoke to.
Of course we’re all here, and not there, but it must be said that If Damon had gone without Todt, and more incognito, we might all be a bit less cynical about it all.
Any news on the medical staff ? Still in prison ?
The medical staff are still on trial..