photo credit: Flickr/eltham_mob

It turns out Force India was so rattled by what happened upon the team’s arrival in Bahrain, they briefly considered withdrawing from the race last night.

In return for them probably considering this and actually pulling out of second practice, the team’s cars were apparently very absent from live feeds throughout qualifying today.

Classy, FOM. When questioned, Bernie Ecclestone said nobody wants to see who is in tenth place.

Note: Fernando Alonso starts 9th. Kimi Raikkonen starts 11th. Does nobody care who is in 11th place?

Bernie also tried to blame the alcohol advertisements on the car, however, Red Bull has also kept theirs on the car. To add to the “try to get out of this one, jerk” fuel, Force India was given the okay to keep their sponsor’s ads on the car.

Other low level teams are worried about their safety as they have not been offered or do not have the funds for the level of security teams like McLaren and Red Bull can get.

A protester was found dead before the start of Saturday’s events. He was identified as Salah Abbas Habib Musa, and he had taken part in one of the peaceful protests that turned violent with police action.

Track protests are apparently planned for tomorrow. Hopefully everyone stays safe.

If you would like actual qualifying news, well, Sebastian Vettel is back on top. And it’s hard for me to take the high road about this whole thing because of it, but I could be far worse off.

One thing I have never seen is Formula 1 on the front page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s website and CNN’s mobile website (without having to go international).

Nothing like bad press to get the year of your return to America off to a great start, Mr. Ecclestone.

Force India skipped out on the second practice session due to safety concerns, but as of right now plan to run in the race and qualify tomorrow. The team did not want to have to return later on, especially considering the massive protest that took place.

Before that however, Bahrain’s crown prince said the event is going on. Both British politicians and voices inside the paddock have questioned the safety of the event. Bahrain has basically gone into martial law without actually declaring it.

CNN has a ton of great articles, which can all be found through this article.

As for Anonymous, the F1 website is back up for now, but earlier it was the subject of the usual DDoS attacks they like to use. They also took down several Bahraini government sites, according to an email received by Jalopnik. The reasoning behind the takedown can be found in a press release on Jalopnik also.

Anonymous, don’t touch me, I’m with you on this one.

As horrible as it might be, I just hope everyone can just make it through safely. Bahrainis, teams, everyone. If the circus has to go on, I just hope they know there are plenty of fans who refuse to watch this race because it’s the best we can do from half a world away.

Bahrain International Circuit (image from Wikimedia Commons)

Friday April 13
First Practice Session: 3:00am
Second Practice Session: 7:00am

Saturday April 21
Final Practice Session: 4:00am
Qualifying: 7:00am

Sunday April 22
Race: 8:00am

SPEED will show a pre-race show beginning at 7:30am. Second practice is also live, and the others can be streamed on SPEEDtv.com. All times eastern.

Last year’s winner: no race held (Sebastian Vettel won in 2010)

What to expect: A lack of safety. Force India’s drivers have spoken out about the petrol bomb incident from the previous day. Other drivers have gone the tacky road and compared it to Brazil (sorry Sebastian but no), and some straight up won’t answer questions. Sorry boys, but this is what people want to know about.

Search “Bahrain Grand Prix” on Google News and you’ll find that since yesterday things have taken a turn for the critical. According to a Reuters article, hospitality groups have seen a massive decline in sales, and many corporate sponsors are not doing much. Shell, a major sponsor of Ferrari, will not be entertaining guests. UBS has no plans to sponsor any events.

Other than that, well, it’s racing as usual.

Weather: It’s a desert. Figure it out.

Tires: Tire compounds for the race will be the white/mediums and yellow/softs. Grip is often reduced by sand blowing onto the track. In fact, when Pirelli was testing tires here before the 2011 season, they had to stop for a sandstorm at one point.

DRS: With no race last year, DRS is new here in Bahrain. The detection point is through the last turn, with the activation zone the final straight.

Like I said before, you’re going to have to look elsewhere for updates on anything unless it’s about how terrible of an idea this race is.

And let’s hope I have no reason to update anything regarding people being hurt. Plenty of protests are planned over the next few days, and while the protestors claim to be peaceful, it only takes one jerk to ruin it all.

Hey, remember last week how John Yates said that he feels safer in Bahrain than he felt in London?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Now the same joker (in every sense of the word, I’d think this moron is a joker for the kingdom of Bahrain also) says the government of Bahrain cannot guarantee that there will be no incidents. This could put teams and spectators at risk.

Oh wait, let’s look on Twitter.

Priestley also tweeted that a team member involved in this has asked to go home as soon as possible. This is not a rumor, and came directly from someone at the team. No one was hurt.

I hope he/she does get to go home, and doesn’t lose his/her job like the Williams’ catering staff member who was fired for refusing to go on moral grounds.

Anyway, here is the full text of Yates’ backtrack.

People say can we guarantee security. Of course we can’t guarantee security. I’d be a fool to sit here and say that.

DID YOU NOT SAY YOU FELT SAFER THERE? Typically if someone tells me they fail safe somewhere, I take this as a sign I should feel better about it.

Joker also said police would fire live rounds at people if necessary.

A couple F1 journalists have been in Bahrain for the past few days and have watched protests and spoken to protestors. It was kind of pathetic this morning to see that people were criticizing one for doing this. Must have missed the part where he’s a journalist.

One even went so far as to say he should “stick to his job or get a new one.” JOURNALISM: look it up.

As stated in the sidebar, I’m not watching. I will post up a preview tomorrow but other than that I think I’ll be rehashing old stories…in case you’re new, this BS has gone on in Bahrain for several years.

photo credit: Flickr/Frank Starmer

Another day, another series of crap from Bahrain International Circuit officials.

Grand Prix chairman Zayed Al Zayan says it’s “armchair observers” (I’m sitting on a bed, thank you) and “scaremongering extremists” creating misconceptions about Bahrain.

Well if you want to be honest, you could just say “I have a lot at stake here and would like to this go on,” instead of blaming everyone else.

Earlier today, the circuit issued a press release via Dragon Associates, a PR firm based in London. London, as you may recall from things like maps and anything about the upcoming Summer Olympics, is not in Bahrain. If you can’t find someone in Bahrain to back you up, I think there might be a problem.

Anyway, the press release cites a number of people saying the race should go on, including a couple Lotus F1 team members.

But shortly after, Lotus said they were releasing a statement about this press release. The quotes in the press release were used without the team’s permission. They were taken from a confidential document that was only shared with other teams.

The full statement from Lotus appears on their website, and it’s short enough that I’ll include it:

Earlier today, the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) issued a press release attributing quotes to our team showing support for the Bahrain GP. These quotes were part of a full internal and confidential working document, that was also sent on a confidential basis to all F1 team managers last week. Lotus F1 Team is one of 12 contestants of the Formula 1 World Championship and we would never try to substitute ourselves for the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), which is the only party entitled to determine if a Grand Prix should go ahead or not, and we endorse the FOTA statement that was issued earlier to this effect.

Additionally, Bernie Ecclestone claims he has met with protest leaders in Bahrain, and has suggested they hold a press conference during the Grand Prix weekend.

Is it just me or does the problem never seem to be the people protesting, but what the government or police do in response to them?

As we get closer to the Chinese Grand Prix, more news about the situation in Bahrain comes forward.
Some teams have apparently given their personnel alternate tickets just in case the Grand Prix in Bahrain is cancelled. There will probably be discussions up until the morning of the race in Shanghai this weekend about what to do.

Both Bernie Ecclestone and Jean Todt will be at the race this weekend.

According to Alan Baldwin’s Reuters article, an “unnamed team principal,” most likely you can bet on this not being Martin Whitmarsh or Christian Horner, said he is very uncomfortable with the race going on as planned.

“If I’m brutally frank, the only way they can pull this race off without incident is to have a complete military lock-down there. And I think that would be unacceptable, both for Formula One and for Bahrain.

I wish I knew who this was from so I could shake his hand.

Thousands of protesters gathered in Manama this weekend, calling for the release of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja. The activist has been on hunger strike for two months and was moved to a military hospital. Today, the Gulf Air Facebook page was hacked with the profile picture replaced with a photo of al-Khawaja. The page has since been removed entirely.

The chairman of Sakhir International Circuit in Bahrain claims the race will bring the country back together, despite the completely obvious signs that it is not wanted by many citizens.

On Friday, Damon Hill called for the FIA to rethink the race, and Richard Burden, a Labour Party MP in the UK, formerly a special motorsport advisor to the Minster of Sport, has agreed with him. Burden’s remarks on the situation are quite good, and can be read here.

At this point if they’re not willing to just give this race up, I hope to see it postponed soon. The race is schedule for next weekend, April 20-22.

photo credit: Flickr / IDR

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t think Formula 1 should go to Bahrain. It’s sadly yet another place where the politics of Formula 1 have to interfere with the far more important politics of  human rights, and you know, nothing to do with pleasing rich businessmen and leaders who speak empty words.

The Grand Prix of Bahrain was meant to be the season opener the past two years. It was instead moved to April this year, and it should be moved until when Bahraini people are not bloodied and beaten by their own government.

Things haven’t changed, despite what Bernie Ecclestone would like to think, with his hand deep in the pocket of the royal family. Take a look on Twitter, take a look at the hashtag #BloodyF1 and tell me if all is well. (Note: if you actually do this, beware that some media content is graphic, but that might help push the point here.)

The Formula 1 circus should not take place when people are dying for their freedom.

When I started writing this, it was the day after the circuit chairman said all is well and there wouldn’t be a need for extra security. This weekend, a human rights activist was arrested, days after he was on the BBC..where he of course said this race shouldn’t happen. There’s tear gas being used on peaceful protesters, and this weekend there was also a murder.

I’m sure their ide of security around the circuit is to probably make it impossible for anyone to get near the circuit without a ticket or credentials. But this race should not happen.

It’s bad for the reputation of Formula 1, which really doesn’t say much, but why would you take a multimillion dollar high society type of event into Bahrain’s situation? I don’t want to see even more people get hurt for what they believe in just because the race is in town. That would really put my favorite sport in a dim light for me.

I’m hoping people come to their senses and call it off again. Too bad, sorry about your loss of money, but maybe you should deal with treating all your citizens with respect before you get the economic boost of the Grand Prix once again.

I will not watch this race if it goes on. I urge you to do the same. I will not cover it here. From half a world away, this is what I can do best at this time.

I’m sure everyone loves having the race in Bahrain, but it’s best for the time being to hold off, and work for what’s right.

(photo credit: Flickr/tik_tok)

OUR FIRST CRASH!

Bianchi was driving during the morning session for Force India when he lost control and hit the tire barrier.

Damage was thankfully minimal, but it was enough to keep the team busy on repairs for the rest of the day. Nico Hulkenberg was set to drive in the afternoon and lost out on testing time.

Bianchi apologized for the accident, saying he was sorry for causing the team delay.

The test driver shouldn’t feel too bad, since he’ll also be driving in the Formula Renault 3.5 series.

Also it could be worse… HRT’s new car failed its crash test today. According to Autosport, the car failed two of the 17 tests and was unable to complete one of them due to failure of the lateral nose test. » Continue reading “On The Third Day Of Testing, Jules Bianchi Gave To Me…”

It’s a very sensitive subject, one you won’t see teams commenting on publicy until someone above them does something.

Last year’s Grand Prix in Bahrain was cancelled amidst government protests. Things looked to have settled down to the outside eye, complete with the government claiming all was well, and the Bahrain Grand Prix was put back on the 2012 calendar, this time with a date in April.

Now, attention is back on the country after accusations that police beat a human rights activist at a rally on Friday (BBC story). The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights is leading the call for teams to boycott the race, a call that began with the man who was beaten, the group’s vice president.

Coincidence?

Bernie Ecclestone stated back at the Brazilian Grand Prix that it would take something “terrible” to stop the race from going on as planned.

According to Andrew Benson, some insiders don’t think the race is going to happen again already.

Meanwhile, the organizers of the race claim that the government of Bahrain is making sure no human rights violations are happening, citing likely biased report from the King of Bahrain.

I am an economics and political science double major, so I have quite a keen sense of what is going on here. Nobody wants to lose the money, and there is so much money involved that human rights violations don’t matter. It’s pathetic, and it’s obvious as day when the FIA is involved.

Look at the inclusion of a Bahrain endurance race on the world endurance championship calendar. Nobody has ever held an endurance race there, and it’s immediately put on a calendar for the pinnacle of endurance racing.

I’m afraid of some group using the race to make a statement and getting hurt. I don’t want to see the people of Bahrain getting tangled up in more of a mess to cause the race problems, and I sure don’t want to see drivers or team members used. If there really are any doubts, it’s time to take the race off the calendar and come back at a far later time.

There are social problems in plenty of countries where Grands Prix are held, let’s face it, but the problem with Bahrain is how closely linked the race is with the royal family, and that is why it can become a prime target.

And don’t forget, no corporation wants to get involved in something like this, although it’s unlikely they will publicly pull out. It’s highly unlikely any group, from a one team sponsor to Pirelli as the tire supplier would want to make such a bold statement.

More or less it’s going to have to come down to these higher up groups speaking privately with the FIA and with Ecclestone and telling them that they have serious concerns. It may be enough to have them think with their brains instead of with their wallets.

Unless an OUTSIDE group that is not the King of Bahrain can prove that human rights violations are being fixed or not even happening, there should not be a race here. Period.

Photo from Flickr user Andrew Griffith

Sorry for the lack of posting, I’ve been in the midst of a move. I woke up on Friday to find AT&T already shut off my internet at my old place, and the modem at my new place wasn’t working. Saturday was of course actually moving day, and yesterday was clean up the old place and fight with my laptop because it doesn’t want to acquire the IP address to connect to the internet day. Still a lot to do, but I must get back to what’s important, too: F1 of course!

Pirelli news first! The tire supplier for Formula 1 wants to change their color coding system for the tires in order to make it easier for fans. To them I say: THANK YOU. The combination of either silver/white and even white/yellow for the tires for a race makes it so hard to tell who is running what tire.

Pirelli is looking to change not only the colors but also the pattern of the color. As you can see in the picture from their Facebook page, the tires say “P Zero” and have a colored line around the tire. They may be looking to the fans for help in deciding how to label the tires for next season. I’d go with text all the way around the tire in red, yellow, green, blue, but I’m not sure where that would leave the intermediate and rain tires. There’s definitely a puzzling road ahead.

Pirelli has also announced the compounds to be used at the upcoming Japanese and Korean Grands Prix. For the race at Suzuka, the compounds will be the medium and soft. The track in Korea will see the soft and supersoft tires in use.

Bernie Ecclestone revealed today that Bahrain fully paid for their Grand Prix this year, despite the event’s cancellation. He says the “Bahrainis” did not want the money back when it was offered to them, and that they think things will be okay for next season’s April race. I totally question this generalized use of “Bahrainis” since there is still unrest in the country. I don’t think every citizen of Bahrain thinks things are just fine and dandy and ready for a race.

Bernie also says he’s highly considering a race in South Africa, followed by Mexico.

Several reserve and test drivers had test sessions with teams last week, most notably Sergio Perez. Although he’s obviously a current driver, his participation in Ferrari’s Driver’s Academy program meant he got to test the 2009 Ferrari car in Fiorano on Thursday. Perez impressed all the top folks over at Ferrari…watch out, Felipe.

Other tests include Canadian driver Robert Wickens running for Virgin in Vairano, Romain Grosjean testing an old Renault in Valencia, and his fellow GP2 driver Max Chilton running a straight line test for Force India in the UK.

It looks like several teams have updates for their cars for this weekend’s race on the streets of Singapore. Team Lotus will be running a new floor on their car, along with bigger front brake ducts to help keep the brakes cool on the challenging circuit. HRT also has an updated floor, plus some new aerodynamic upgrades. Williams has upgraded their front wing and diffuser and will be testing them out for the first time in Friday’s practice sessions.

Lastly, the reserve drivers will be participating in a fashion show this weekend in Singapore. Let’s hope none of them crash the clothing or take any male model’s positions at other races. As Will Buxton said on Twitter earlier: Who will perfect blue steel?

My money’s on Nico Hulkenberg. (Except I didn’t see his name on the list but I’m going with him. Deal with it.)