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FORMULA One executives have hit back at a mischievous media campaign questioning the staging of a grand prix race in Bahrain next year.
Bahrain International Circuit insiders are finding the constant rumours and press reports ‘unsettling’ but are determined to get on with the job at hand to ensure the Sakhir circuit is ready for the challenge of staging a race this coming April.
The world motor sports governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), has been quick to reassure race fans in Bahrain that as far as it is concerned the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2012 will go ahead as planned and it dismissed suggestions that a new race schedule would be announced next month or the current one formally confirmed.
Norman Howell, FIA’s director of communications, told GulfWeekly on Monday: “The calendar for the 2012 F1 Grand Prix has been ratified by the FIA, therefore all listed events are scheduled to run, as planned.
“The position is simple - there is a calendar for races for 2012, it has been approved and all teams and promoters work on that basis.”
His statement follows recent international media speculation and comments made on motor racing websites. Reuters correspondent Alan Baldwin, for example, reported that ‘next year has 20 races, although a question mark still hangs over Bahrain …’ and BBC Sport claimed that ‘Formula 1’s return to Bahrain in 2012 is being called into question following continuing unrest in the country’. This was followed by F1zone.net stating that veteran Swiss correspondent Roger Benoit, writing in the Blick newspaper, reported that ‘Turkey had been put on standby’ should Bahrain’s late April event be called off.
Mr Howell added that the presence of a ‘standby race’ was not an official one and therefore could not be commented on.
To further support the home of motor sport in the Middle East, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, wrote a short and sweet note to GulfWeekly’s F1 reporter Mai Al Khatib on Monday, stating: “The 2012 calendar is as has been published.”
Zayed R Alzayani, chairman of Bahrain International Circuit, added: “We are on the calendar for April 20-22 and that is it.”
Speculation has been rife because of the topsy-turvy events of this year which saw the kingdom’s race postponed because of civil unrest, reinstated to a later date and then cancelled following an orchestrated anti-Bahrain on-line campaign targeting teams and sponsors.
