It’s now almost two years since Michael Schumacher returned to F1 at the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix. Of course, the 2011 race was cancelled due to civil unrest in the country. Since then the Bahrain royal family has assured us, and more importantly Bernie Ecclestone, that all is now okay in their kingdom and the Bahrain Grand Prix has been confirmed on the 2012 calendar for 22 April.
That’s all well and good, but the BBC reports there are new concerns over the future of this year’s race with the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) is calling for F1 teams to boycott the race.
In an interview with Arabian Business, Nabeel Rajab, BCHR Vice-President said, “We will campaign for…drivers and teams to boycott. The government wants Formula One to tell the outside world that everything is back to normal.
“Formula One, if they come, they are helping the government to say [it is normal]. We would prefer it if they didn’t take part. I am sure the drivers and teams respect human rights.â€
For their part race organisers are trying to smooth things over by asking everyone to have a Bex and a good lie down.
“Last year, the King of Bahrain commissioned an independent report into alleged human rights abuses, the findings of which were published in November,” a spokesman for the Bahrain International Circuit said.
“The report found evidence of human rights violations and made certain general and specific recommendations. The Government has fully acknowledged the findings of the report and is acting swiftly and convincingly on the recommendations.
“The independent report was a milestone for Bahrain and we will now work tirelessly to ensure that the race is a great success.”
Bernie’s last word on the matter was given towards the end of last year at the Brazilian Grand Prix: “It’s on the calendar. We’ll be there. Unless something terrible happens to stop us.”
Let’s see if (and hope) Bernie is right.
3 replies on “New calls to boycott 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix”
Maybe just the teams who legitimately belong in point-scoring positions could boycott it. A pathetic race won by a Toro Rosso or Caterham would be a far more effective boycott than no race at all.
Bernie doesn’t have a clue. He is deliberately ignorant of regular politics and human rights issues and thinks F! is bigger than what is happening in Bahrain. Unfortunately he is wrong and normal society may never forgive F1 if the sport returns to Bahrain any time soon.
[…] above image was sent to AUSmotive via twitter. Clearly some people don’t want F1 in Bahrain. In January we reported on calls to boycott the 2012 race and civil unrest continues in the Gulf state. […]