Bahrain campaigns to bring race back

F1 Fanatic round-up

Posted on

| Written by

In the round-up: Bahrain urges Ecclestone to return the race to the calendar.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Dear Bernie, are you listening? (Gulf Weekly)

“The support for Gulf Weekly’s F1 initiative has been overwhelming with VIPS, dignitaries, business executives and celebrities joining ordinary race fans of all ages to make their feelings known.”

The real story behind the FIA’s exhaust clampdown (James Allen)

“While Red Bull and Renault are to be applauded for their innovation, it’s a road that Jean Todt’s FIA doesn’t want the sport to go down. Whiting said in his original letter that they feared an escalation and where that might lead. Better to outlaw the practice now and then make sure its written into the 2012 rules.”

F1 Fanatic on Twitter

“Got some cool features on ‘Senna’ coming up ahead of its UK launch on June 3rd.”

Via the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app

Overtaking – making the impossible, possible at Barcelona (F1)

“The number of overtaking moves has not only increased significantly compared to 2010, but it has also risen steadily with each race so far in 2011, from 30 total moves in Melbourne (including all types of pass) to 112 in Turkey.”

Byron Young on Twitter

“All this drama about what happened between Adrian Sutil and Eric Lux and I understand a British journalist was at M1NT nightclub that night.”

Via the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app

Brawn: Schumacher will bounce back (Autosport)

“I have spoken to him since then. We had a lot of technical discussions and he was hassling about what we were doing about the car, what is coming along, what improvements we have got – so nothing has changed. We are optimistic.”

Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.

Comment of the day

Nick Mallard spotted himself in a picture from the Silverstone Wing launch:

Two dashing chaps in the background there!

Oh hang on – no, one of them is me!
Nick Mallard

From the forum

Here’s a question that gets harder to answer the longer you’ve been watching F1 for: who’s your favourite driver to win a race?

Happy birthday!

No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Olivier Panis scored his only F1 win – and the last for Ligier – in the Monaco Grand Prix 15 years ago today.

An eventful race saw Michael Schumacher crash out on the first lap and Damon Hill and Jean Alesi both retire from the lead.

A late collision between Mika Hakkinen, Eddie Irvine and Mika Salo meant just three cars were still circulating as the race finished: Panis, David Coulthard and Johnny Herbert,

Here’s the opening lap which set the tone for a dramatic Grand Prix:

Image © Red Bull/Getty images

Author information

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

51 comments on “Bahrain campaigns to bring race back”

  1. I too would be hassling brawn about what’s coming to the car… Doesn’t mean I’m going to be able to challenge my team-mate over a GP weekend..

    That clip of the Monaco 96 race reminds me of one of the main reasons I fell in love with F1. Crashes at the first corner or somewhere on the first lap. Drivers doing everything they can to gain a position. Ahh the good old days

    1. Agreed. Thes days with DRS and tyre strategy and the fact that DRS is t allowed until 2 laps in means the drivers just sit back and wait and don’t take any gambles

    2. It’s easy to look back with nostalgia but these “good old days” didn’t, by the definition you use, “end” until this year (and maybe the races when Ferrari were dominating, I never saw much of those). Think positive!

      1. If I’m honest, 96-99 is my favorite period in F1, if it went back to that, I’d be a very happy fanatic.

      2. True they only ended this year but I don’t see them coming back for the forseeable future. I still love my F1, just miss certain aspects of it. Oh
        Well :)

    3. graham228221
      19th May 2011, 6:02

      Love the commentary as well: “BOSH – into the barrier!”

    4. And the man standing in the centre of the grid on the formation lap?!

    5. Boooooring.

      I sat through the first 3 youtube clips and frankly watching 20 laps of an Irvine train with 8-9 cars nose to tail and no hope of a single overtake is not my idea of excitement.

      No! Wait!Something is about to happen….

      No wait! Something might happen in a minute…

      O! The race has finished.

      DRS rules. Bring it on.

      1. Its interesting, isn’t it. I remember this race as a really great and thrilling race right until the end.

        Rewatching it yesterday, the start was great but after lap 4 it just settled down and Panis was the only one overtaking anything while Frentzen trying on Irvine was a good show for a dozen laps.

        But then it sort of got boring until close to the end.

  2. That Monaco GP was my first hated race in F1. It was my first season so I was new to everything. I wasn’t annoyed that Damon simply didn’t win, but the way it happened. Even then I knew the significance of the race to the Hill family so it was even more disappointing. It took me a few years to fully appreciate the result’s silver lining (Panis winning)! I might have to watch it again now as there’s a lot I don’t remember.

    1. I remeber watching that race and thought Panis’ win was a joke. Mclaren had a special short wheel base version of their poorly performing car for that race.
      I also remember one driver stalling his car at the hair pin, I think Irvine, and using his quick belt release but he got the car started again but was forced to pit to have his seatbelt fixed. Would have won the race but for that.

      1. Joke? How so? before inheriting P1 because of Hill and Alesi retirements, Panis has set fast lap after fast lap, and brought himself into the position to benefit from those retirements, despite starting from P11 by overtaking on track at least four cars including Irvine in the Ferrari, Villeneuve in the Williams and Coulthard in the Mclaren. In Monaco! I remember watching it as a teenager and seeing Panis slide his car on the exit of the swimming pool, I thought it was great stuff.

    2. WHAT! Monaco 96 is my favourite race ever. Ok so attrition played a big part in Panis winning but he was monsterously quick all race – there are parts when he’s 3 or 4 seconds a lap quicker than anyone else and he passed 3 or 4 cars on track.

      It would have been nice for Damon or Alesi to win, but you can’t have everything!

      1. I was 10 years old and a massive Damon Hill fa, how do you think I’d react! :P

  3. BREAKING NEWS!!!!

    Just uploaded to youtube, the closed caption camera footage from the Shanghai nightclub shows clear as day what actually happened between Sutil and Lux.

    It looks like a Knife to me!!!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSHCNTELFI8

    1. Wow, what amazing footage, Thank you ;)

    2. Wow! I can’t see how Sutil is gonna get with anything short of a year in Chinese prison! This is huge!

    3. You call that a knife?

      1. That’s a spoon :P

    4. Haha, I clicked that link expecting to see actual footage!

      1. Ditto. Worth it though!

    5. Well, at least it wasn’t Rick Astley again.

      1. I would never Rick-Roll the good people of F1Fanatic!

      2. It was actually better than a Rick Roll I’d have to say.

        1. We F1 types have class :D

  4. That’s pretty damning evidence, I don’t know how adrian’s going to get out of this one. He can say goodbye to his F1 career.

  5. Nice to see so many supports for F1 in Bahrain.

  6. First thing I want to know is who owns the Gulf Weekly, secondly I’d like to know who the author was and lastly I like evidence to suggest it is anything other than the common place propaganda that exists in Bahrain.

    You know, I’m kinda hardline against the Bahrain GP going ahead this year, but don’t get me wrong, I do sympathize with the people who genuinely like F1 and want to watch it. It’s just I don’t think this newspapers target group to please is them. Take a look at the other stories on the site and you’ll get what I mean…

    1. Well, guess who. The only independant newspaper in Bahrain was closed down for their reporting a few weeks ago (Its owner jailed) and then put under scrutiny to report more sensibly

      As an answer to the last line in that article I would say: Fine, keep waiting then. Or actually do something positive to help bring it on.

      To say they

      … would love to continue to be the friendly race and make you proud.’

      They would have to change their recent ways and be friendly to all citizens of their own country.

      1. “We promise to give teams and motorsport fans a traditional warm Bahraini welcome.”

        When i saw this i thought: Oh ****! they are gonna shoot us!

  7. Is Hamilton providing targeting information to Sutil? Or is any other person playing a role in the incident?

  8. To me Brawn sounds like he really hopes and convinces himself it is great to have Michael in the car. I cannot help but feel Schumacher would do the team a favour if he announced mid season that he would help develop the car but quit as an active driver from next year on.

    He could even take up DTM with them as well, and do road car work as a day job.

  9. A nice interview with Chandhok here. Nothing world moving but a good read for all us F1Fanatics.

  10. I think this race in Catalunya, Schumacher might actually get a podium.
    Last year this was the only race where Schumacher was faster than Rosberg, convincingly. And he has traditionally done good around this track. If he can sort out his qualifying issues and get into top 10 then he might have a good race. I cannot say anything about Australia, but in Malaysia and Turkey he had better or sort of equal race pace compared to Rosberg. He managed his tires better than Rosberg in Turkey. Ok I agree in China he was slower than Rosberg but than he has never done good around that track.
    So don’t be surprised if Schumacher finally gets a podeim. Plus Mercedes seems to have taken a step ahead as far as car is concerned.

  11. HounslowBusGarage
    19th May 2011, 8:44

    Interesting article on F1 money on the BBC web site. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13438913

    Between 2006 and 2010
    Revenues from media rights, race hosting fees, licensing $4,995.4m

    Revenues from Paddock Club hospitality, GP2 races, trackside advertising, misc $1,956.3m

    Revenue total $6,951.7m

    Total outgoings $5,732.3m

    Net profit to shareholders $1,219.4m

    This is the para that really made me cough over my breakfast-

    The analysis reveals that Mr Ecclestone and his family trusts have earned more than $148m in five years from their stakes in Delta Topco. The F1 ringmaster has also received $31m in salary.

    1. Certainly interesting to see there is a lot of money in the sport. And a lot of that does not go back into the port as investment into broadcasting, the teams, circit improvements nor does much end up to support starting talents or indeed grass route motorsports at all.

      1. That’s a stupid amount of money. What are they actually going to do with it?

        I’ve never seen a product on a shelf priced at a $100,000,000. I really haven’t. :/

  12. Regarding the Senna film, there are rumours that the upcoming release has been shaved to 100ish minutes from its original 160-something due to whatnot (different places seem to cite everything from rights fees to the need to make a more commercially accessibly film). It sounds like many of the racing scenes have been neutered.

    Have you seen or heard anything about this Keith?

    1. I did an interview with the film’s writer Manish Pandey in January for a multi-part feature on “Senna” starting next week.

      There’s loads of information on how the film was cut, what was left out and what was left in, and why. Stay tuned!

      1. Sounds brilliant Keith! Looking forward to it.

      2. Looking forward to that!

    2. Well if that’s true I’ll just wait for an extended DVD. It’ll only be slightly more than a cinema ticket the way prices are these days!

    3. I had heard the film was 80 minutes long anyway… as Bernie allowed them 40 minutes of footage at first, but then doubled it later…

      I’m off to see the film on Wednesday in London. Can’t wait. :D

    4. I went to the London premier on 3rd of may (James Allen hosted) and I’ve seen the film, so i can speak from experience. Its a great film, and the main focus is obviously on the dynamics of the Senna Prost rivalry, the role of JM Balestre and then the Imola events.

      You wont see much of the Mansell Senna scrap at Monaco (when he kept Nige back for the last laps of the race) and I dont recall Donnington.

      The original cut was something like 6 hours according to Asif, and the obvious reason they’ve had to cut it down is the royalty fees.

  13. Bernie might just as well line up the Syrian and Zimbabwe GPs while he’s at it.

    Utter madness, does nobody realise how damaging it is for a sport to associate with a country that has been involved in recent controversy?

    1. I’ve actually just read the article for Bahrain. It ends by saying

      The message to Bernie, the FŽdŽration Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), racing teams and drivers is crystal clear … Bahrain wants F1!

      The message from myself and a lot of others who have been concerned about the events over there is clear.

      Bahrain might want F1, but maybe the fans of F1 don’t want Bahrain.

      Whatever the truths and mistruths (according to some people) about the events of the last months, it will be wildly innapropriate for F1 to return to Bahrain in the near future, until they can prove a long period of stability.

  14. From James Allen on over-run exhaust:

    Well it’s not very efficient for a start. It increases fuel consumption and is not environmentally a very attractive thing to do. It’s also an area which has zero relevance to the road car industry or to society generally.

    Which has been my argument for banning wings for the last twenty years, strange how the FIA can apply logic to certain situations and not others :-)

  15. That Gulf Weekly article is really concerning. From the almost desparate tone of it, it comes across that the Bahraini powers-that-be view the Formula 1 race as a crucial endoresement to show the rest of the world that it is now a safe place for tourism, travel and business in general. Seems even more politically loaded now.

  16. Nothing much has changed in Bahrain since the race was blown out a few months ago. All that is different is that the government has called in Saudi tanks and has the protesters out-gunned. They even restrict access to the hospitals if you please. As things stand, it would be shameful if the F1 race in Bahrain goes ahead. Even if it does, some teams may not attend, and some drivers may not race. I suspect some big sponsors might withdraw too.

    1. Sure, but how’s China any different?

Comments are closed.