There will be no Formula One race in Bahrain for the 2011 season. Despite a meeting where the FIA's World Motor Sport Council voted to bring Bahrain back into the F1 calendar, questions surrounding the organisation’s recent commission report have revealed that the political situation has not improved.
After a dramatic six days since the FIA’s decision last Friday to slot the Bahrain GP back in the calendar and push India to December 11, chiefs at the Sakhir circuit acknowledged on Thursday night that the race was now definitely off.
So what happened? Apparently, the FIA deployed a commissioner to Bahrain in the wake of the country’s recent political upheaval in a bid to assess its fitness to host the event. The submitted report was, however, deemed to compromised by a sham orchestrated by the country’s leader in an effort to create the impression that Bahrain’s situation was under control.
Bahrain International Circuit chairman Zayed R Alzayani said that, with teams unhappy about the calendar reshuffle, there was little point in pushing for an event that would lead to problems for F1's competitors.
"Whilst Bahrain would have been delighted to see the grand prix progress on October 30th in-line with the World Motor Sport Council's decision, it has been made clear that this fixture cannot progress and we fully respect that decision…We look forward to welcoming teams, their drivers and supporters back to Bahrain next year and would like to extend our deepest gratitude to our supporters, including staff, volunteers, sponsors, private businesses and the general public, for whom I know this year's decision will be a disappointment."
Ricken Patel, executive director at human right group Avaaz, stated that many organisations opposing the Bahrain Grand Prix were amazed that the FIA was so easily misled by the questionable Bahrain report. Patel had this to say:
“Reading the FIA's Bahrain report is like stepping into the Twilight Zone. While the FIA's sham report says no human rights have been violated, at least 31 Bahrain citizens have been killed and hundreds more tortured and imprisoned. Formula One must pull out of Bahrain immediately or have their reputation forever tarnished.”
In addition to resistance from human rights groups, eleven of the twelve F1 teams protested the event, and with no cars or drivers on hand, holding a race would be a difficult assignment.
