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The Bahrain International Circuit team has a spring in its step this week after it was confirmed that the Sakhir home of motor racing in the Middle East would be hosting Formula One again …next April.
The season-opening Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix, which was postponed this year in the wake of unrest and then rescheduled before being cancelled altogether, was initially scheduled to take place in 15 months time.
However, Indian GP organisers complained to F1 management that it would be too hot to stage a race in Delhi on April 22 as temperatures can hit 36C and a request to swap dates with Bahrain was made, despite temperatures here being not much cooler at 29C.
Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa, BIC chief executive officer, said: “We received a call regarding India and were asked if we could accommodate the date instead.
“We always want to do what is best for the sport and as we regularly have our race at around that time of year anyway, we said yes. As a circuit we have no problem with the change.
“The F1 calendar is confirmed and it’s great to see Bahrain on it. We usually start our F1 meetings in September to prepare for the big day, so for us it was perfect to hear the news this early on because now we can start our normal cycle ... and one that we are accustomed to.
“Overall, we are very excited about F1 being back in Bahrain as well as having the teams and F1 officials back in the kingdom.”
Bahrain had hosted the race in April on three consecutive occasions – from 2007 to 2009. It staged the opening race in 2006 and in March last year. The BIC venue will hold the fourth race on the 2012 calendar.
