It is still very early in the process, but there is clearly a big push going on to make Bahrain the opening race of the 2014 season, at least if Melbourne does not rapidly agree to a new contract from 2016 onwards. Melbourne has played host to the first race of the season on most occasions since 1996, although in 2006 Bahrain managed to get the gig and Melbourne was pushed back to being the third race. The attendance in Albert Park suffered significantly and the remarks made when the Grand Prix was reinstated as the first race in 2007 were telling.
“Securing pole position as the first race of the year is important for Victoria because it always receives extra global attention and media coverage,” said the then Tourism and Major Events Minister John Pandazopoulos. “This is a great result for Australia’s sporting and events capital.”
Australian Grand Prix Corporation Chairman, Mr Ronald Walker, echoed the Minister’s sentiment and said the decision to award Melbourne the first race of the season reinforced the city’s reputation as the premier event on the global F1 circuit.
“To be reinstated as the Championship’s opening race is great news for the people of Australia,” he said. “There is much status afforded to the host city of the first event on the F1 calendar and this is nothing short of a splendid outcome for Melbourne.”
Three years after that, however, Melbourne was pushed back to being the second race again with FOM arguing that starting in Bahrain was more sensible in terms of TV viewing figures and the teams seeing the logic in sending their equipment out to Bahrain and then on to Australia.
In general, however, such date changes seem to be linked to contract negotiations and with Melbourne currently discussing the next deal from 2016-2020, with an option to extend to 2025, it is no great surprise that pressure in being applied.
The teams want to go testing at the start of 2014 in Bahrain or Abu Dhabi so that they can see their new machinery in action in warm conditions. This is important as the new engine rules and new tyres need to be assessed in sensible conditions. They are also keen that these tests are done relatively close to home so that modifications can be made more easily. There is no reason why there cannot be a warm weather test in the Middle East in February (except the cost) with the cars then going on to Australia and returning to Europe later after races in Australia, Malaysia, China and Bahrain. These days the cars spend very little time in the factories and much of the modification work is done at the race tracks, with new parts being flown out when needed.
joeblogsf1 
Great, how to entice people to watch F1 – start the season at the boring virtually spectatorless Bahrain circuit. On the plus side it gets Bahrain out of the way early.
My thought also, thanks
Yep ! Lets have the first race in a desert with no one watching. Awesome. At least it’s done for the season, I guess..
Bahrain can spend more money on promoting its self than Australia cares to waste.
So no doubt money talks and we will all be watching a boring circuit with half empty stands and very little fans visiting.
Or we can forget about all that massive pile of filthy petro dollars that will come flooding in and instead have a 4 day spectacle in Melbourne, which sees full stands, lots of racing and fantastic season opener for the F1 season.
4 days of racing and I still never get round all the activities on show.
The people be heard.
Since the Sky deal,the first race hasn’t been available to me anyway – so in a twisted kind of way this works out for me!
I think the 2006 race was changed because of the Commonwealth Games. The CG is such a waste of time, although I’m sure Alex Salmond would have us believe differently!
I don’t have much an issue with the Sakhir circuit (it seems like a decent drive on sims), but it looks barren, featureless and slow. It really should never open the F1 season.
Surely putting the Bahrain race first would be the worst decision that could be made as the anticipation for the first race always exercises far more publicity for the resulting country that secures it. This also wouldn’t have escaped all the detractors of the regime and would also start the season off with extremely negative publicity. I hope it stays with Melbourne.
Best wishes
Chris
“with an option to extend to 2025, it is no great surprise that pressure in being applied.”
Does Bernie still do all this himself or does he take a back seat nowadays?
“Does Bernie still do all this himself or does he take a back seat nowadays?”
What else would he do with his time? What else could he possibly want to do?
How about this for a 2014 calendar? Take out the Tilke dross which no-one cares about in Bahrain, China, Korea and India and replace them with the proper racetracks Turkey, France, Imola and Austria, as well as scrapping the proposed new race in Russia.
Much better already. Shame I’m just a fan.
Turkey and Austria are Tilke tracks.
Indeed. Bring back Imola and Magny Cours or Paul Ricard. Sack off Bore-rain, China and Korea.
To be fair (although I’m not sure he deserves it) it seems that Tilke has finally twigged why people don’t like his tracks. Gone are they days where a bemused Herman can moan to Motor Sport that people should love his tracks because the buildings are beautiful, and he now seems to understand that making an exciting circuit is a smidge more important for his reputation amongst fans. India and CotA are much better than most of his abominations (just watched the V8 Supercars race in Austin last weekend, and they reveled in the track) and he should be congratulated for finally getting a couple right on purpose (Turkey and Malaysia seem to have been early flukes of luck). However, he made his name and money from constructing the sort of facilities that, were they afloat, would almost certainly attract the term ‘gin palaces’, and because of this his name will always be mud among the Castrol R brigade.
Tilke designed the Turkey circuit.
I have no problem with a start in Bahrain, the track can give us good racing as was proven recently and it would enable the opening F1 round to start at a decent time for us on CET.
Anybody know if there has been some progress on making the Melbourne event a night race? Could track lights be one of the demands Bernie has for contract renewal?
Pesky night races. I liked it when you could get up in the middle of the night, watch a couple of hours racing and go back to sleep. Now, with two small kids and races timed to start shortly after they wake up, I often end up missing the races.
Ah, easy. Fascinate them with F1 magic and they will then sit with you!
So Bahrain’s on the calender next year! The rumor was they moved this race to Syria due the political problems in Bahrain…
Great. Start the year with a boring unattended politically divisive circuit rather than a circuit with a party atmosphere and always guaranteed great racing.
Nice one Bernie…
Testing in the sandy regions seems to be a better idea then the present, where they invariably end up with skewed results caused by weather issues. Would also give whoever the chance to see how their tyres stand up to the warmer climes too.
The main problem with having the opening race in Bahrain is that a large chunk of the initial preseason press and the like will probably be on the political situation in Bahrain and is it right to go there. I’m sure the teams and the sponsors would much rather the usual sort of things and positive PR that we see when the season starts in Melbourne. Having the Bahrain GP a week after the Chinese GP means that there is typically not much time to write about such things as a lot of the journalists only seem to focus on the next event (Ie China from Malaysia) rather than those in a few races time.
True
Does it matter, if the Tyres remain, the BBC hand everything to SKY and circuits like bahrain get the nod over Spa (in doubt every year long with silverstone) I won’t be watching. It’s a shame as if the racing was real I would buy your Mag – instead I find better reading in old books from the car boot ( this is not a judge on your quality writing but the quality of what you have to write about). I think Perez and greg John aren’t the only ones in the pit lane in need of a wake up call.
Is there still a GP in Mexico next year happening? I would also like to see classy circuits like France and Imola joining the calendar or perhaps Turkey
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