Bahrain Grand Prix organizers summoned support for their troubled Formula One race on Tuesday and said a campaign for it to be canceled was being driven by “armchair observers” and “extremist groups.”
The Bahrain International Circuit produced witness statements from foreign observers, including two members of the Lotus team and the British ambassador to the Gulf kingdom, in defense of the April 22 race.
It said a briefing by the Lotus representatives had been sent to all 12 team principals on Thursday last week and ahead of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, where a final decision is expected.
The Grand Prix in Bahrain, which has endured almost daily protests and unrest since an uprising against the government in February last year was bloodily suppressed, is scheduled to follow on immediately after China.
There have been increasingly vocal calls for it to be canceled, however, with one unnamed team principal telling Britain’s Guardian newspaper that all the teams were hoping the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) would call off the race.
“Yes, there is a need to keep the circuit and the teams secure, and they are doing this and they feel very comfortable about the arrangements,” the Lotus report said in excerpts reproduced in the Bahrain circuit statement.
“If there is going to be protestation then it will be confined to peaceful protests — you will maybe see some banners being waved and maybe some tires on fire, but that is all they expect,” the report said.
“We came away from Bahrain feeling a lot more confident that everything is in hand,” it added. “If it wasn’t for a few more police you wouldn’t know any difference from last year we were there.”
Last year’s race had to be canceled because of the unrest, after an initial postponement. The last race there was in 2010.
The circuit statement also quoted John Yates, a former assistant commissioner in the London Metropolitan police who now advises Bahrain’s Ministry of the Interior, as saying policing would be low-key and discreet.
“There is nothing that in any way warrants for the race to be postponed,” he said.
Circuit chairman Zayed al-Zayani said in a statement that “armchair observers” had been driving the debate at the expense of neutral parties “who have taken the trouble to investigate the situation at first hand.”
“This, combined with the scaremongering tactics of certain small extremist groups on social networking sites, has created huge misconceptions about the current situation,” he added.
He urged all stakeholders in the sport to “listen to those with an informed, educated view of the situation and to form their view on the facts of the situation as presented by neutral first-hand observers.”
The Formula One Teams Association, which represents Lotus, Caterham, Force India, Marussia, McLaren, Mercedes and Williams, said it was not possible for the teams to cancel the race.
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