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.