The news that Bahrain is off the calendar is not really a surprise and I think it is the right thing to do. The best option in very difficult circumstances. It is not for Formula 1 to tell the Bahrainis how to run their country, but it was right to make them understand, which they clearly did, that it was a real risk to send in F1 at a time when the sport could end up being used for propaganda purposes. The situation was simply too volatile. At the same time I think it was right for everyone to bide their time a little and not make hasty decisions. These are complex issues and it was right to get everyone singing from the same songsheet.
Bahrain needs now to sort things out and how that happens is not the concern of the Formula 1 world. Personally-speaking, I do not see how those who ordered the troops to go in last week can be allowed to continue in power, but that does not mean that the ruling family has to go. Giving the population a decent option – the Crown Prince – and some honest and earnest reform, would work wonders and things would quickly settle down again. Bahrain is not as rich as some nations, but nor is it as poor and giving the oppressed the chance to flourish would be the wise choice.
But motorsport people and real life politicians are like chalk and Camembert… we know about different things. And we should keep it that way. If things do not get better, then F1 would not return and all the investment that Bahrain has made would be wasted. But it does not have to be that way. There is a happy balance… and I hope that it can be found.
joeblogsf1 
This might give you a better political picture on Bahrain, unique to Egypt and Libya.
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110221-revolution-and-muslim-world?utm_source=GWeekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=110222&utm_content=readmore&elq=1b3c4b5d6aa24c7a8f0156085ce6cf67
“But motorsport people and real life politicians are like chalk and Camembert… we know about different things”
Like Luca di Montezemolo?
October is apparently the target date for rescheduled race.
Joe I love F1 – probably far too much given the irrelevance and veniality of it – but it has nothing to do with what is going on the in the Middle East – and Russia and possibly China in due course – all these countries have used F1 (and some other sports on occasion) as a fig leaf for doubtful regimes and perhaps it has not been wise for it to be so – although it has of course made BE a tidy sum along the way
People like structure and routine to their lives.
So, barring a civil war, the situation across North Africa and the Middle East should settle sometime.
What about ‘force majeure’ in the other countries F1 visits?
Any country has the potential to be a flashpoint, through forces of nature, civil unrest, an act by the ‘Supreme Being’, or all of the above.
F1 never backed down from the American GP after 911…
“But motorsport people and real life politicians are like chalk and Camembert…”
Wonder how Di Montezemolo is going to cope then when/if he does jump…
I guess to my American mind, no one ever has the right to be a “Ruling Family”; representative (or total) democracy is the only valid form of government. Practically speaking, I understand your statement that maybe the Royal Family could stay in power, at least some form of power sharing on the road to a proper democracy. But, yes, I think you’re last statement, that motorsports people and politicians know about different things and F1 needs to stay out of politics and political situations, is right on.
The values F1 promotes around the world are
Peace & Sport, as can be seen on the signage above
the start and finish line for the previous Monaco Grand Prix’s.
Staying politically neutral is very wise, unless of course your path crosses with Tony Blair and New Labour…
Given the nature of dispute between the two religious factions (with the minority that detains power being challenged by the majority in marginalia) I find very difficult to see F1 returning to Bahrein whatever the time in future.
Fernando,
I am not sure I agree. In my experience religion is often used as excuse when there are other woes. Sunnis and Shias live together perfectly successfully in other places and there is no reason that they cannot do so in Bahrain. OK, the recent history does not help, but the problem is one of government style. Times change and the Bahrain folk need to adapt. If they do not adapt then they will be rolled out of there one day or another.
I think the crass way this cancellation was handled was yet another demonstration of F1’s legendary insensitivity.
Bernie passed the buck. Jean Todt passed the buck.
It was a fait acompli that the race would have to be canceled. It was Ecclestone and Todt’s job to make that decision. They completely abandoned their responsibility.
I’m not at all surprised at Bernie’s non-decision, but it was a terrible way to handle the situation. Bernie’s callous attitude towards sensitive issues like this once again does the sport far more harm than good.
Random,
I don’t agree at all. I think BE, JT and the teams were all very sensible about the ban. Waiting for developments and then making a measured decision and not acting too rashly. Yes, it might have seemed wrong to be considering going racing, but my view is that they probably decided very early on that it was not a good idea but were hoping – as we all were – that things would miraculously get better. Just because a bunch of pressmen decide to write the same story saying that they should have done this or should have done that does not mean that it is the right story. In any case, for most of these media folk it is just another story to be churned out – they do not care about the sport. They all do identical stories because it is a form of self-protection. If they all have the same story their editors do not complain that they missed anything…
Uh, Luca di Montezemolo is hardly the “motorsport person” to point at. He hasn’t been knee deep in the sporting side of things in decades.
Apparently, Bernie has returned the F1 race fee to the Prince. Wouldn’t it be a nice story if the Royal family used those millions to build some houses for poor people, or something like that.
According to the Daily Telegraph the 24.7 million pound bill for cancelling the Bahrain GP will be picked up by F1 Management, this puts rather a different spin on things doesn’t it? In the past few days it seems that everyone was claiming credit for “doing the right thing” and cancelling (or postponing) the event, but if FOM are picking up the tab then it must have been Bernie who made the final decision, I wonder why this was. The crown Prince was under pressure from his subjects to cancel the race, and surely if he had gone to FOM and said “sorry you can’t come” then I would have thought Bernie would have said “Ok fine but you still need to pay the fee”. Is Bernie going soft in his old age? This is doubtfull, so why is he paying?
I wonder if Mr. E is having second thoughts about his continued push away from Europe and into the middle and far east. How many more races are at risk? There is massive social inequality in Brazil, China’s human rights record is pretty dire, the whole Gulf region is notoriously volatile, if these races continue to be cancelled and with the precedent set of the country not having to pay up,then maybe we will see less of these races in the future. Another potential problem could arise if a country decides a GP is no longer affordable, they could use any sort of social un rest as an excuse to cancel the race without paying a penalty.
The bigger question of wether any sport should allow itself to be used as a sign of respectability by corrupt governments will answer itself, a repressive regime is an unstable regime due to it’s susceptibility to popular uprisings, and the risk involved to sport promoters will naturally move them away from such places.
FOM will not be charging Bahrain for the cancelled GP.
Bernie said:
“Nobody wants to gain from this. I want to be loyal to the king because he is doing everything he can to put things right with his people. He doesn’t need people like me stabbing him in the back.”
“I am not charging them for a race they are not getting.”
“If and when it is rescheduled they will pay their usual fee.”
As Vikki has pointed out, the problems in Bahrain are unrelated to those in North Africa. The coverage in western media has been almost universally sensationalist and lacking in either insight or compassion. Only the journalists have been talking about ‘regime change’ – that is the language of Bush and Blair, not the Arab world.
With hope emerging for positive change, the Bahrainis have already been dropped from the main news agenda – even as they remain sitting on their roundabout. Quite where Formula One fits into their future is a mystery but what is abundantly clear from these pages is that the relationship between the sport and its fans (and the media which informs them) is fundamentally flawed.
Like many people on here I lament what’s happened to Formula One’s venues, personalities and its very soul but it is a 20th Century sport attempting to stay afloat in a vastly different world. As Joe regularly points out, it has been used to promote political aspirations since the days of Kaiser Bill and without its rampant commercialism it would long since have disappeared into obscurity.
The debate over whether to go ahead with the Bahrain GP has only illustrated how low general opinion is about this ‘environmentally-damaging’ activity which creates multi-millionaires through promoting tobacco, fizzy drinks, banks and petrochemical giants with no inkling of social conscience. Yet only that voracious appetite and commercial muscle keeps it in the public eye at all.
If you want things how they were then there’s always the Goodwood Revival, or to see how professional motor sport fares without the support of major investment go and spend a lonely day in the grandstand at a 1000km race. But to treat the plight of Bahrain in the past 10 days as vindication of long-held grievances against the governance of Formula One is pretty shameful.
Now then, what’s happening at Lotus (or Lotus?)
According to the Mumtalakat Holding Company, Hotels, travel agents and tourism operators in Bahrain stand to lose up to $700mil if the race is not rescheduled.
Karen,
That almost sounds like a reason why the critics in Melbourne are not very intelligent people…
The decision to cancel the race became an inevitability once the insurers withdrew cover for the physical assets of the teams. The only extraordinary thing is that it had to come to that before the practical facts were recognised.
Bernie Ecclestone is usually a hard businessman, so his decision not to charge the Bahrainis a cancellation fee is out of character. I suppose it must show where his political sympathies lie, but F1 shouldn’t be about politics.
hi Joe
I am always inclined to pessimistic evaluations regarding most conflicting situations in life, so that explains my thought on that one.
also, and maybe more important, I am quite ignorant about arab nations, and in fact what I had in mind when I mentioned that dicotomy was Iraq, what of course cannot be taken as reference to the subject in question.
your explanation is very enlightening, and helps to reconsider my point of view, along with news i just read, government has just released a number of political prisoners and Saudi Arabia will intervene with financial help to population in need.
both moves clearly will distend the heavy political climate.
still I have an impression of F1 being too much of a westerner (and very superfluous and expensive) event for such nation, but then again I trust your point of view – you’ve been there many times.
Joe, with all due respect, I fully predicted Bernie’s tone deaf cop-out *days* before the articles you’re referencing were published. The record is here in your comments. I found it disgraceful then and now.
Today, Bernie is crassly and openly discussing a reschedule of the race. Already! Can you imagine *any* other sport on the planet so tastelessly and openly working to set a new date not a week after a massacre?
To call Bernie “tone deaf” to these sorts of things would be a true understatement. I think he honestly doesn’t get why innocent unarmed women and children being shot at in the middle of the night is a problem.
Bernie is clearly a “low empathy individual”. There’s a medical term for those who share that affliction, but in deference to your legitimate concerns about liability, I’ll not use it here.
Having the sport run by a low empathy, remorseless businessman can pile up the money, but it does the sport no favors in matters of conscience. It groups Formula One in with the most insensitive of multinational corporations on the planet, and for what gain?
I believe Bernie’s clear disconnect on these matters does real and lasting damage to the sport. Though perhaps because such crassness is all we’ve known from F1 these many years, the scale of the problem isn’t as obvious as it should be.
Random,
We have all have our opinions. I disagree with you.
The uprisings in the Arab world are due to rising food prices. Staples (rice, corn) have increased 50% in the last year alone. When the majority of your calories come from these sources, and you don’t have spare cash (i.e. you’re poor), this is going to create a lot of pressure.
(We don’t see these rises in the west as the ingredient costs account for less than 5% of the shop price)
The pressure is on the poor and the place where they vent it is at their leaders who have been ruling them for years. Why do they suddenly want democracy (as the western press sees it)? Why didn’t they want it before?
It has nothing per se to do with ruling families, dictators or democracy. It is to do with Ben Bernake releasing trillions of dollars to investment bankers to speculate on global commodities markets combined with crop failures in Russia. Such is the nature of global business.
Spending money on an F1 race rather than helping out a country’s poor seems to be the wrong way to go about governing a population. It is right to cancel the race, and I would have thought if I was the Crown Prince I might want to skip a year, if I want to keep my throne.
@joesaward
Yes, according to Victoria state finances, tourism and sales tax revenue amount to $160,000,000 from the Australian GP.
They may make a loss on ticket sales, but make a substantial profit overall.
Interesting the view presented by Charlie; I share the impression that GP there should be skipped at least 1 year, still not convinced things will settle down in a
matter of few months.
anyway we have to wait and see.
from what told by Karen, revenue amount for Melbourne city with GP is quite the same, in US dollars, for the city of São Paulo with Interlagos GP.
Only Gay Parade provides bigger tourism profit here, each year.
by the way, Brasil and Argentina are two countries going to benefit enormously from the food commodities skyrocketing prices – but, naturally and unfortunately, this is not going to help generating jobs in rural production areas, quite the opposite in fact.
finally, I think this does not fit in the general field of discussion in this blog.