The FIA’s decision to reinstate the Bahrain GP is receiving plenty of criticism and apprehension from the teams and drivers. Some are worried about the safety situation, others are concerned about the issue of human rights. Faced with protests, the government has been reported to use heavy handed tactics to break up protests, injuring and killing protesters.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber was one of the first to voice his concerns. “When people in a country are being hurt, the issues are bigger than sport. Let’s hope the right decision is made,” he tweeted on the eve of FIA’s meeting to decide the outcome.
“In my personal opinion, the sport should have taken a much firmer stance earlier this year rather than constantly delaying its decision in hope of being able to re-schedule it in 2011. It would have sent a very clear message about F1’s position on something as fundamental as human rights and how it deals with moral issues,” he added on his website.
“As a competitor I do not feel at all comfortable going there to compete in an event when, despite reassurances to the contrary, it seems inevitable that it will cause more tension for the people of that country. I don’t understand why my sport wishes to place itself in a position to be a catalyst for that,” the Aussie said.
Rubens Barrichello, head of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, focused on safety. “I would like to make it clear that I love the track and the event itself. Therefore, I want to be sure that we will be safe there. In the GPDA meetings, all of the drivers showed concern and demanded safety to race in Bahrain. For us, the drivers, what really matters is safety. The rest is not important.”
Like Webber, ex-FIA president Max Mosley warns that by racing in Bahrain, F1 is supporting the violence. “Surely the line has to be drawn when a sporting event is not mere entertainment in a less-than-perfect country, but is being used by an oppressive regime to camouflage its actions,” Mosley wrote in the his Daily Telegraph column. “If a sport accepts this role, it becomes a tool of government. If F1 allows itself to be used in this way in Bahrain, it will share the regime’s guilt as surely as if it went out and helped brutalise unarmed protesters,” he warned.
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Bravo to Mark Webber and Max Mosley for their stances. Even though Egypt, Yemen, and Ivory Coast took most of the attention recently for civil unrest issues, Bahrain has been making headlines for aggressive arrests of non-supporters of the government, in what appears to be their version of Operasi Lalang. I think something as public as F1 has huge potential in bringing these issues to light and taking action, and it’s a relief to know that among the ranks of the influential people of F1, there are those with conscience.
human RIGHTS?? so what happens to the palestinians…where the hell is ur HUMAN RIGHTS!!!!!!!!
Same to China’s Human Rights. Still keen to race there?
Don’t be a hypocrite MW.
In Malaysia, everything gets politicised. F1 pun sama…
“If a sport accepts this role, it becomes a tool of government.”
Alo.. it is already a tool for the investor.. Uncle Bernie and friends.. no longer a pure sports la. Wake up my friend!
Typical of the Western media to play up irrelevant issues.
If human rights abuses are a criteria for not having an F1 race then there wont be a World Championship any more because no country can say they are completely innocent.
China and their crackdowns? USA and Guantanamo bay, WMD nonsense etc? Australia and their systematic abuse of their native people? The list goes on and on.
Its a sport, not a political bargaining chip. Leave politics to the politicians. F1 Journalists are just so full of themselves.
I think the difference is in other countries, nobody plans to crash the race to gain attention to champion their cause. http://paultan.org/2011/02/16/bahrain-protests-threaten-to-derail-f1-season-opener/
You don’t hear that with other countries, f1 race can be organised safely n peacefully. Victims of opression in other countries don’t plan to use f1 to create martyrs n gain sympathy from international audience.
To absolutely eliminate risk of bahrain gp hijacked by protestors, it’s up to the govt to deal with the protestors. That doesn’t seem to be going well, as the govt chose violence to deal with them.
That is why Webber’s, Barrichello’s n Mosley’s concerns are justified IMHO. In other couuntries, f1 cannot be blamed for assisting any form of opression. Bt in Bahrain, they can…
I fully agree with Mark,. There’s so many countries willing to host F1 now, why put unnessessary risk by having it in a place with so much uncertainty? Risk cancelling at the last minute again?