Williams were prepared to boycott Bahrain Grand Prix

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In today’s round-up: Adam Parr says Williams would have boycotted a race in Bahrain.

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Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Williams ‘would’ve boycotted’ Bahrain (Autosport)

“Had the Bahrain Grand Prix gone ahead, I don’t think we, and in fact I suspect even all the teams, would have gone.”

Up-and-comer Rossi hopes youth will be served on F1 circuit (Austin-American Statesman)

“I think young drivers are always looked at and regarded as the next thing to come onto the big stage, whether it’s sports cars or Formula cars or NASCAR. I think it has been the same for quite some time, and I think the young guys winning is a testament that the talent is there regardless of what the age is.”

Ross receives Honorary Degree from the University of Northampton (Mercedes)

“Ross [Brawn] joined over 1500 students graduating from the University of Northampton to receive an Honorary degree.”

Senna Film Review: The Life Of A Formula One Driver (Forbes)

“The added drama about the questionable circumstances of his death ?óÔé¼ÔÇØ namely a car that was not safe enough to be on the road ?óÔé¼ÔÇØadd a universal theme, about how power and money corrupt, and can destroy when left unchecked.”

2010 Australian Grand Prix start (YouTube)

Video by Magnificent Geoffrey:

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Comment of the day

Christian Horner says Fernando Alonso is the biggest threat to Red Bull but Hare sees it differently:

The biggest rival to Red Bull last year was Red Bull.
The biggest threat to Red Bull last year was Red Bull’s drivers.
Hare

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On this day in F1

Sauber brought young Mexican driver Esteban Gutierrez into their young driver programme on this day last year.

Gutierrez went on to win the inaugural GP3 championship and drives for top GP2 team ART this year.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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67 comments on “Williams were prepared to boycott Bahrain Grand Prix”

  1. Good to see that the teams would have boycotted the race even if it went ahead, that would have sent a strong message to Bernie, the FIA and of course Bahrain. I only hope that all teams would have taken this view, though the lure of guaranteed points for some teams might have swayed their judgement.

    1. Of course, it’s easy to say now.

      I mean, if I believe anyone on the grid, it’d be Sauber, Williams, and McLaren, in that order – but still.

      Presumably, though, anyone considering say that would know that people would be suspicious, and thus not say it unless he really meant it – of course, anyone who understood that line of reasoning would come to the conclusion that anyone hearing that line of reasoning would think the same, and thus say it even if it weren’t true, since people would think he wouldn’t say it unless it was true.

      Wait, what were talking about again?

      1. it’d be Sauber, Williams, and McLaren, in that order

        Spot on.

        I’m tempted to say HRT as well, on grounds of having no new car… but that’s a bit harsh I think.

      2. I thought the same immediately after reading this news.
        Then again, Adam Parr was saying very strong words against going to Bahrain already on Friday right after there were People killed there. So it does fit together.

      3. I doubt that McLaren would have boycotted the race – they are largely owned by the Bahraini royal family.

        1. I doubt that McLaren would have boycotted the race – they are largely owned by the Bahraini royal family

          It would have been interesting to see how Mclaren would have reacted but I doubt they’d be the only team to race.

        2. I forgot about that!

      4. Of course, it’s easy to say now.

        Yeah I immediately thought “hypocrits, why didn’t they say that before it was cancelled”

        Its a bit like when a Rock Band doesn’t win the Mercury music prize “we didn’t want to anyway!”

        yeah right.

        I’m tempted to say HRT as well, on grounds of having no new car… but that’s a bit harsh I think.

        LOL, nice burn there Mike.

        Be funny if they were the only ones to turn up.
        “Congrats to HRT on winning the inaugural race of 2011”

        Fastfoward to the next race, HRT are last!
        Kolles: “we’ve been leapfrogged in the tech arms race”

        1. I think the teams were just maintaining dignity by keeping quiet. Why fan the flames when people are losing their lives. It would have been very easy to wax lyrical about the situation, passing judgement and pontificating but I’m with Frank Williams on this occasion. “Dignity at all times”!!

          Once the decision has been made, there is no problem with expressing your political position but at the end of the day, it wasn’t their decision to make so keeping their mouths shut was the right call.

          Get off your soap boxes and appreciate the difficult position everyone in F1 is was in.

        2. “Congrats to HRT on winning the inaugural race of 2011″

          Minardi almost won a race in 2005.

          If only the two Ferraris and Jordans took each other out! Damn it!

  2. Epic fail by the medical car there.

    1. How on earth did he end up in front of two F1 cars???

      1. The Virgins started from the pits, and Alonso spun. So all 3 were behind the medical car.

        1. Great video Mag.

          Almost a big crash between the two Virgins, Alonso and the medical car there!

          1. I was at that race, first GP I have been to.

            God that was a great week.

          2. I’ve just watched the vedio and the memorys have come flooding back, makes me all tingly. So shattered that I can’t go this year.

  3. Love the video Mag.

    1. I’m still amazed no one managed to crash into Alonso’s stricken Ferrari after it spun at the first corner

      1. Nice video MG, try to upload more if you have any.

      2. Anyone else spot the irony – people were screaming for Ferrari to let Alonso past Massa in that race because he was much faster – but in Germany people were screaming AT Ferrari for doing so. :P

      3. That was really amazing, wasn’t it?

        Thanks for posting that, great video!

    2. Fantastic.

      1. From Mag Geoff, would we expect any less?

        Thanks man!

        1. That’s basically the exact seat I’ll be sitting in on the 27th March, so I’ll try to capture the traditional first corner shunt with my trusty Handycam. :) Nice video, by the way.

          1. I’ll be in the stand on the other side of corner 1. Should be good.

          2. So maybe you film it both, and make a nice F1F on track cut of it!

            Would love to see that.

          3. So you’ll be filming each other then…

    3. +1

      I loved the ‘OOOOH *beeep* *beep*’ at the Kobayashi crash :D

      1. Have you got any footage of when a red bull in the sand trap come up on the big screen and when the name came up and said Vettel, the whole crowd errupted.

        That was a classic moment.

        1. Yes, I do. I’ll upload them over time.

    4. Yeah really excellent video – I’m going to my first GP this year (Monza) and watching that just got me even more excited!!! :D

    5. a good hype up video for round 1!
      plus i just bought tickets for the brabham stand during the week, so a good example of what it will be like!

      still love the beeps as kobayashi crashed into hulk!

  4. Bahrain was never going to happen, even if the Crown Prince said yes. The teams would have arrived, seen that it was unsafe and had the race cancelled on the spot. The whole point of having the Crown Price decide whether the race was to go ahead or not was to challenge him to be realistic about the state of his country.

    1. Or to leave him the dignity to ‘make that decision’. After all, he has been a good friend (money-wise) and you treat your friends well, don’t you.

      1. Suppose that is about it bananarama.

    2. Yeah, it was an egalitarian move on Ecclestone’s part, doing his bit for the little guy. Ecclestone has said outright that democracy was one of the worst things that happened to Britain, and recently he said that he wanted “to be loyal to the king”.

      You really do live in your own little world, don’t you?

    3. The whole point was so that they didn’t have to pay them a cancellation fee as well as not receive payment (which Bernie waived anyway).

  5. love the reaction to kobayashi, buemi and hulks crash

  6. Few good discussions going around on who should/will be taking part in this $5,000,000 Indy Car round at Las Vegas.

    The names/possibilities are endless.

    1. It’s a shame that’s the weekend of the Korean GP, otherwise there might’ve even been rumours of F1 drivers getting involved

      1. There will still be rumours. I bet Kimi and Kubica are ones that continually get mentioned, although this simply won’t happen.

        Interesting though as Montoya has even ruled it out, and this is supposed to be primarily directed at Nascar drivers.

        1. I definitely get the impression that it’s targeted at NASCAR since Indy’s primary viewership is in the US, where NASCAR has a far bigger fanbase. It would be fun to see someone like Räikkönen show up and put them all to shame. I have a hard time believing that anyone inside Indy (including the team mechanics, engineers, etc.) are going to let an outsider have a fair shot at it though.

  7. I’m watching highlights of the 2009 Rally of Australia on DVD right now. Environmental protestors got one of the stages cancelled by throwing rocks on the road. Why do some Aussies hate motorsport so much???

    Also, WRC is really brilliant once you make an effort to get into it. Although, as I type this Loeb has just slowed before the finish in an example of those annoying road order tactics they often do…

    1. We don’t hate motorsport. Those protestors were a bunch of NIMBYs who didn’t want the event to go ahead because they seemed to think every koala in the area would be hit by a rally car that passed through. In truth, they simply didn’t want the event disrupting their lives, and failed to see the exposure that an international event would bring to the region. Most of them were from the upper-class, who had paid handsomely for land around the Tweed. Never mind the fact that the rally probably didn’t go anywhere near them; they were inconvenienced by it, so it had to go. Fortunately, the rally has moved to Coffs Harbour for 2011, which has hosted a round of the Australian Rally Championship for well over a decade. It’s become a part of life there.

      Although, as I type this Loeb has just slowed before the finish in an example of those annoying road order tactics they often do…

      There’s no real solution to it. First on the road has to sweep the top layers off, and so is naturally slower. But by the time you get down to about tenth or twelfth, the surface has been carved up and you lose position. They experimented a while ago with a random draw for running order, but it was so poorly organised that Colin McRae ended up first on the road because the drivers had been told “Go to Langley Park”, but they weren’t told which end. However, road order tactics seem to be banned – Loeb lost out big time in Sweden this year, but he never stopped on the road the way he usually would have.

      1. Mate just because you don’t agree with those NIMBY’s doesn’t mean they don’t hold valid reasons…

      2. NIMBY’s are all around the world. As far as I’m aware, many British racing circuits (like Croft in particular) have major noise restrictions due to these people despite the fact that the circuits been around much longer than most residents.

        Spa is another example, a circuit that has been around since the 1920’s? and has recently had it’s racing license threatened by a local group. Unless the leader is in his 90’s, then the situation is not needed. If you don’t like the noise, why move near there? People can move, historic racing circuits can’t

        1. Well it’s not necessarily a question of moving. Populations just expand, and it’s not like everyone gets to choose where they live. Plus just because people didn’t object to the noise before doesn’t mean it bothered them any less. It’s not like racing circuits are natural landmarks, no matter how much we might like them.

          1. The people who move near a race track and then complain annoy me though. What did they expect?

  8. Senna movie in adelaide tomorrow! Pity I won’t get to see it till next week

    1. akimbo_joe (@)
      26th February 2011, 6:08

      Thanks for posting this! Otherwise I would never have known. Unfortunately I just agreed to work all day tomorrow… there is always next week I spose.

      I found some more info on the sessions here if anyone is interested:

      http://tix.adelaidefilmfestival.org/session3.asp?sn=Senna

      1. You’re very lucky. I highly doubt Senna will be coming to Tasmania. :(

      2. It was in the round-up a couple of weeks ago, no excuse for missing it :P

        See it before the vic’s nick it

    2. You legend! I’ll be there.

  9. Typical williams! Say things after the fact just to make the team look good.

  10. I noticed it begun to switch me to the mobile site yesterday. Downside is all the comments are in chronological order (which I know you’re working on) and that it doesn’t remember my details. But it’s good to have to load a story quicker and make an individual comment!

    I think young drivers are always looked at and regarded as the next thing to come onto the big stage

    Not to be rude, but…nah, really!?

  11. Nice to see that there would have been a boycott regardless. I couldn’t see any self-respecting team take part for the sake of a few lousy points. They would be up for a very public lynching.

  12. My goodness me! My first COTD ( that I’ve noticed ).

    Usually someone comes along with a stats table from the last 61 years of F1, revealing some amazing fact that has passed every living being by. until finally enlightened at the last possible moment before the round up… :D

    Thanks Keith ;) I feel I’ve joined the club…

    1. Well, if it means anything, I think you’re one of the more enjoyable posters here : )

      1. Awesome! That’s better to know than the COTD ;) Thank you very much, I enjoy posting :)

        1. You are a great poster Hare and I absolutely agree with your CotD.

          RBR were their own worst nightmare last year with car failures and then their drivers getting into to scrapes (esp at Turkey). They could/should have won both titles a lot sooner than they did.

        2. Good to see you up there. I like reading your comments a lot as well Hare. Even if Rabbit has the cuter picture ;-)

          1. haha. Yeah, and he joined before me! So I don’t have a harey leg to stand on!

  13. HounslowBusGarage
    26th February 2011, 13:23

    Hypothetical, I know and with a few ‘ifs’ in place, but . . .
    If the race had gone ahead, and if insurance cover had been in place, and if Williams had unilaterally decided to boycott Bahrein, as they claim . . . the FIA would have excluded them from the Championships, wouldn’t they? And Williams’ sponsors would have been more than slightly peeved, which Williams cannot afford.
    I’m not sure I fully accept that Parr is being entirely truthful.

  14. That is a little easy to say AFTER they have decided not to race there. I would respect that had they said it before the race was canceled, but now.. it just seems like they are trying to get some cheap PR to make the team look good.

  15. That was one of the brilliant starts from Massa, from 5th to 2nd

  16. Glad the mobilek site is back – I was just about to ask!

  17. Will they be boycotting China then or going along with the grand hypocracy of F1 which Bahrain demonstrated so well?.. F1 will only race in countries run by totalitarian regimes if you have managed to crush all dissent before we arrive, otherwise, to avoid bad PR, we will cancel until you get those pesky dissenters under control again.

Comments are closed.