F1 Fanatic

Just heard several fellow F1 Fanatics on social networking site Twitter that they are reluctant to see the Bahrain GP go ahead ( as well as 12 F1 teams) & would rather have it cancelled or postponed – mainly due to the civil unrest that has been going on for the past year. Honestly, i don’t understand all the negativity, it’s as if they’re part of FOTA now, everyone’s entitled to their opinion but as passionate, dedicated racing fans you wouldn’t like to see a race in doubt regardless if it was ‘boring’ or ‘exciting’ or ‘glamorous’. Wouldn’t you? One fanatic said to me ‘there’s more to life than racing’ as true as it is , that fanatic and i wont call them out but that doesn’t sound like it’s coming from an honest perspective never mind a racing fan’s perspective.

What matters is that Bahrain, as a host of a Grand Prix still remains a part of racing (F1 in particular) & if the race is postponed, then it’s for the best, safety is well considered. If the race goes ahead however, let’s just hope the race goes better than in previous years (2010 for example). I really hope this conundrum gets solved pretty soon. I’m truly sorry to those who are put through with all this confusion and absurd statements.

@bradley13 Interestingly, Jean Todt will be in China this weekend for the GP. if theres going to be a going/not going announcment, expect it by then.

@lak Thanks as ever for taking the time to give us your view ‘on the ground’. Although you and I may not fully see eye to eye on this I do consider your point of view instructive and useful, and I appreciate that it is always expressed with respect towards those who do not agree with you.

I just wanted to pick up on one thing from your reply, which was this:

Bahrain has changed, we have moved on.

From what I’ve read and watched I see little evidence of much being done to address the core grievances of the protesters. By which I mean the royal family do not appear to be making serious concessions towards implementing representative government.

Without this, I fail to see how the country can be said to have “changed” and “moved on”. I certainly see a desire to move on among some people, but that appears to be through quashing the protest and brushing it under the carpet rather than seriously responding to the demand for real change.

I agree with Keith to a certain extent, but we should take @lak ‘s perspective seriously. The king paid a number of independent uk lawyers to go over and give an independent report on the state of the country and how it should improve. I was cynical about the independence of this report, however one of the lawyers was a good friend of mine and he has assured me that the report was frank, honest and comprehensive. The king, as a result of this report, has replaced many key members of staff from a number of departments. Part of the problem is that media, and to some extent the opposition, are not allowing change to happen and are perpetuating the problem.

Ultimately, the opposition will not give up their fight until the royal family step down from power, which is not realistically going to happen.

Hopefully the country can get to a point where:
A) all citizens can live without threat of violence, and have their voice heard
B) visitors (including F1) can visit safely
C) F1 can return

For this all to happen, I fear that all sides and the media will have to take a good dose of common sense, humility and respect for one another with an attitude to move on.

Fingers crossed.

Lak, the London riots started precisely because the police shot and killed a suspect they were attempting to apprehend. One suspect, originally claimed to be armed but subsequently believed not to be. The suspect’s friends held a small demonstration the next day to demand answers (note that this was before the story got changed – shooting a suspect in Britain is that controversial). Some of their friends mistook this as an invitation to violence (that wasn’t the intention of the people organising the demonstration) and they attacked the police. These people had friends across London who then started attacking property in their own mirror protests. These were hijacked by random troublemakers, leading to the protests eventually seen worldwide. Most of the 3000+ arrested didn’t even remember what started the whole thing, but that doesn’t mean that one isolated incident didn’t incapacitate a large city’s nocturnal trade functioning for the best part of a week (as well as impair several other cities’ trade for some time).

There was meant to be an inquest but evidence was lost and as a result the inquest may never happen. This is extremely controversial. The police are only meant to use tear gas and water cannon (a less dangerous alternative that might not be practical in sandy Bahrain) in certain specified circumstances, and live ammunition not only requires specialist training but can only be used in extreme situations, generally involving criminals likewise armed with guns, or mobs outnumbering the police by dozens-to-one. The police are trained in a large array of techniques that are designed to de-escalate situations without recourse to violence. (Kettling, a technique which I’ve read the Bahrain police use in these village attacks, is restricted in use in Britain due to its tendencies to aggravate those “kettled”). Police on horses and dogs, lightly-armoured vans (used as fast yet protected minibuses full of police) and foot patrols with shields, are common. Tasers (electrical stunning devices) are somewhat controversial because they can kill if badly used or if the target has certain medical predispositions, but they are nonetheless quite frequently used against violent criminals where other methods aren’t viable.

The other key thing is respect. If people can’t respect their leaders, they won’t see any point in keeping to the laws. If they can’t respect the people who enforce the laws, they might follow the laws to a point but they’ll see no reason to take responsibility for their actions if and when they feel the line is crossed. Even if they can’t remember or can’t articulate why they felt the line was crossed in the first place. If someone in the F1 community gets hit by a Molotov cocktail from a protestor or tear gas from the government forces, it won’t matter if either side can understand the other or not. It’ll be just as injurious – and it’ll have just as powerful a negative effect upon Bahrain’s prospects of ever getting another F1 race (or any other FIA event; there’s a WEC race due to happen in Bahrain in October, lest we forget…)

bradley13, the teams are allowed under Concorde (the bit Bernie’s bothered about) to skip 3 races per year.

However, the FIA can penalise a team however it chooses, so anything other than force majuere would net a penalty – up to and including exclusion for missing a single race.

The drivers are contractually obliged to race for their teams as per the contracts they have. If they don’t, in theory they could lose their Superlicences, though teams would probably sack them first if force majuere didn’t apply (the team can’t get out of its obligations so they’re hardly going to be lenient on a driver if they can help it).

Interesting, can I also ask, in a strange way, is it just me that thinks this is quite reminiscent of US 05?

Just to throw my twopence worth in…

Staging the Grand Prix in Bahrain is tantamount to legitimising the actions of the autocratic regime that control’s Bahrain. Why and how? Because the regime will take full political advantage of the F1 GP by presenting an image of normality and peace – but we know that isn’t true because there are medics in prison for treating wounded protesters, others for merely protesting and daring to want democracy etc. There is somebody on hunger strike and has been for 62 days now.

The Bahrain government were very quick to commission an independent inquiry into the protests but they’ve been mega slow in implementing any of the recommendations.

One final and fairly significant point.. The Bahrain GP is run by the government of Bahrain and they stand to benefit financially from it. This is in contrast to virtually all other GP’s which are run by independent motorsport organisations which have nothing at all to do with their respective governments.