Thread: Bahrain GP- Will it be Cancelled?

Well, I'm pretty sure almost everyone at here will agree that F1 should NOT go to Bahrain. It would be very dangerous for the sport, the teams and the drivers. Joe Saward has a few articles on this which you might consider reading - I'm just too lazy to put them here, so if you want to read them, you can look for them yourselves.

Now, the real question is - WILL F1 go to Bahrain? And if I were a betting man, I'd be putting my money on that they'd go. It doesn't really look like that the teams are movilizing against the Bahrain race as they did last year, although you can never really know what's going on inside F1. However, the teams haven't said much about this and at this time, their indifference makes me believe that they'll be going to the Bahrain race.

I hope so.

Originally Posted by N4D13

Well, I'm pretty sure almost everyone at here will agree that F1 should NOT go to Bahrain. It would be very dangerous for the sport, the teams and the drivers. Joe Saward has a few articles on this which you might consider reading - I'm just too lazy to put them here, so if you want to read them, you can look for them yourselves.

Now, the real question is - WILL F1 go to Bahrain? And if I were a betting man, I'd be putting my money on that they'd go. It doesn't really look like that the teams are movilizing against the Bahrain race as they did last year, although you can never really know what's going on inside F1. However, the teams haven't said much about this and at this time, their indifference makes me believe that they'll be going to the Bahrain race.

Indeed. It seems as though the right decision isn't the Bernie decision.

The Question of SHOULD F1 go to Bahrain is simple to answer surely. No!!!!
The Question of WILL F1 go to Bahrain is a more difficult to answer. ????

Nabeel Rajab , president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights , said :
"We are going to use the opportunities that a lot of journalists are there and we are going to protest everywhere."

Then , he was arrested .

Who's going to fill the grandstands ?
Saudi troops ?

Politics and Sport should not mix so I say yes as long as it's safe for everyone involved.

If the event is cancelled, then the problems in that country are ignored but if it goes ahead, then the spotlight of the world is on the country which can only help.

As long as the organisers are confident that the race is going to be safe then I agree that it should go ahead. If Formula 1 was to refuse to go purely on human rights grounds then surely it shouldn't be going to places such as China either? It's a dangerous game to start and if you play it then where exactly do you draw the line?

F1 shouldn't be going to Bahrain for a bunch of reasons - insipid circuit, little to no local fan support for example - but I think Knockie is right, politics and sport shouldn't mix. It's not F1's job to police human rights.

Originally Posted by aki13

Indeed. It seems as though the right decision isn't the Bernie decision.

The Question of SHOULD F1 go to Bahrain is simple to answer surely. No!!!!
The Question of WILL F1 go to Bahrain is a more difficult to answer. ????

I agree i dont think they should go to Bahrain.

Originally Posted by Knock-on

Politics and Sport should not mix so I say yes as long as it's safe for everyone involved.

If the event is cancelled, then the problems in that country are ignored but if it goes ahead, then the spotlight of the world is on the country which can only help.

With much respect, I disagree entirely. Politics and sport always mix, and there is nothing that can be done about it. Look at the way Hitler sought to use sport (including motorsport) for his own ends, or the symbolic importance of the cricket tour bans during the apartheid period in South Africa. I consider it most naive, I'm afraid, to suggest that events in Bahrain should have no influence on whether the GP goes ahead. How exactly will holding a motor race there help? The spotlight was well and truly on Bahrain during the events there last year, and that didn't help. Why should the staging of a sporting event be any different? And to say that events there are otherwise being ignored simply isn't true. They continue to be reported by many news outlets. I see the GP only as legitimising the current Bahrain regime, not helping those opposed to it. How can it be viewed otherwise, given what a pet project this is of the country's leadership?

Originally Posted by IceWizard

As long as the organisers are confident that the race is going to be safe then I agree that it should go ahead. If Formula 1 was to refuse to go purely on human rights grounds then surely it shouldn't be going to places such as China either? It's a dangerous game to start and if you play it then where exactly do you draw the line?

I don't believe it should go to China either, on exactly those grounds, for I believe the West's attitude towards human rights abuses in China is pretty shameful.

Originally Posted by Hawkmoon

F1 shouldn't be going to Bahrain for a bunch of reasons - insipid circuit, little to no local fan support for example - but I think Knockie is right, politics and sport shouldn't mix.

They shouldn't, but they do, and this has been a fact of life for years. This can't just be ignored.

Originally Posted by Hawkmoon

It's not F1's job to police human rights.

But surely it ought to avoid the sending-out of what amounts to a message of support for the current regime in Bahrain, one that has been responsible for some appalling human rights abuses? The GP is a project so personally backed by the regime that it simply cannot be viewed any other way. It's all very well to say that politics and sport shouldn't mix, but they do, and that's a fact of life. Sport has often been used by politicians to make political statements. Therefore, given the way it has been used by others for such ends, it is entirely appropriate on occasion for sport to take its own stand against politicians. The Bahrain GP is just such an example. If the line can't be drawn in the case of Bahrain, a country where the regime's forces are reported as actively having stopped ambulances from taking wounded protesters to hospital, where can it?

Originally Posted by BDunnell

... I see the GP only as legitimising the current Bahrain regime, not helping those opposed to it. How can it be viewed otherwise, given what a pet project this is of the country's leadership?

I tend to agree.
Holding a sporting event, especially one as prestigious as F1, would have the effect of belittling the current strife in the country. In effect, demonstrating that the discord in the country is merely a niggling irritant, certainly nothing so troublesome as to warrant cancellation of a major event.

Originally Posted by Bagwan

Nabeel Rajab , president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights , said :
"We are going to use the opportunities that a lot of journalists are there and we are going to protest everywhere."

Then , he was arrested .

Who's going to fill the grandstands ?
Saudi troops ?

a few camels?? there's never many people there anyway- rubbish track, in a rubbish location, in a country with no interest and dubious politics. But then again f1 races in China and will be going to Russia soon....so where is the line drawn??

Originally Posted by Hawkmoon

but I think Knockie is right, politics and sport shouldn't mix. It's not F1's job to police human rights.

It's a really twisted way of looking at things to say that human rights is "politics". People are demonstrating weekly in the streets, getting shot at by snipers, and being tortured in detention. This is politics to you?

And no, this isn't similar to China. While China is not a bright beacon of respect for human rights, it is not killing its citizens in broad daylight for protesting in the streets. The last time it did that was in 1989, and I think it would have been terrible if F1 had gone to China after the Tiananmen square protests and pretended that "F1 shouldn't mix with politics".

Originally Posted by djparky

But then again f1 races in China and will be going to Russia soon....so where is the line drawn??

I don't know exactly where the line should be drawn either, but to me, when you start shooting people in the streets in broad daylight just because they are peacefully protesting, you have crossed the line.

F1 going to Bahrain will be seen as nothing other than endorsement of the current dictatorship ruling the country.

Originally Posted by BDunnell

I see the GP only as legitimising the current Bahrain regime, not helping those opposed to it. How can it be viewed otherwise, given what a pet project this is of the country's leadership?

This is exactly what people don't seem to get. The Bahraini government has long said that the security and political situations in their country are not that bad, after all F1 wouldn't be coming if that wasn't the case. They are directly using the presence of F1 as an indicator of the stability of the country.

Its as if GW Bush claimed that the invasion of Iraq was internationally accepted simply because F1 carried on going to Indy.

When the regime in power actively uses the GP for political purposes then F1 has been politicised. Its that simple. The FIA should use those grounds alone to cancel the GP instead of letting the race be cancelled because of the lack of insurance cover.

Unfortunately though, another thing that has to be recognised is that Bahrain is very much seen as being one of ours. The links between Bahrain and the UK for example are very strong and continue to be so. The royal families of both countries still socialise, and Bahraini officers still come to train in the UK. The message the UK government is sending to Bahrain is very much along the lines of weathering the storm instead of changing or significantly altering the regime in place. The French are little different. For these reasons I expect the FIA to do all in its power to get the race to go ahead.

I'm tired of the Bahrain talk
I understand the intricacies of the issues but I think that it's been on the calendar now for 2012 and we are close to racing there so let it be.
It was understandable last year, but this year its a different situation. For those who think it legitimizes the government etc, I suspect they would have the same apprehension to other countries hosting GP's with war mongering governments or involved in dicey political matters. Lets try and seperate F1 from the political issues of the country. I know the 2 can be intertwined, but when it comes to Bahrain I feel the west is a bit hypocritical at best and sanctimonious at worst.

Originally Posted by truefan72

Lets try and seperate F1 from the political issues of the country.

Impossible! In this instance, the very staging of the GP is a political act. There is no avoiding this.

It seems that both sides would like the F1 circus to come to town .

The government wants the GP to show the place as , "All systems go , all back to normal" , and the opposing forces want to show the world that this is not the case .

Pretty ironic , if you ask me .

And Bernie wants them all to walk into that snake pit ?

To be sure , all the Bernie cameras will be pointed inward , but the rest will be watching the front gates .
It's gonna be hard to position the race cameras so that no Saudi soldiers are shown .
And , it may be even harder to ensure that no pepper gas floats into the event .
Protesters need only position themselves upwind of the track anywhere to make it unraceable , as the police have no problem spraying the stuff liberally .

They had better start the round-up pretty soon , and they'd better order some more chain-link and razor wire , because they've got a whole population to jail .
Oh , wait , they already have .
Tear gas stock is rising as we speak . Buy in now .