25/11/2011
NEWS STORY
Bernie Ecclestone has said that he is confident that the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix will go ahead.
After a protracted process that was extremely embarrassing for the sport, the 2011 event was finally abandoned, though this was done for reasons of logistics rather than anything to do with what was actually happening in the country.
While attention is focussed elsewhere in the Middle East, and those initially celebrating the so-called Arab Spring realise that all is not as it should be, things in Bahrain 'appear' to have settled down.
A report issued earlier this week was scathing of events earlier in the year, listing countless abuses of human rights, however, the King has promised reforms. Nonetheless, amidst continuing reports of brutality, many remain highly dubious.
Not Ecclestone however, who is confident that the 2012 will go ahead. "It's on the calendar," he told reporters at Interlagos yesterday. "We'll be there, unless something terrible happens to stop us."
Asked what would happen if there is a repeat of the 'unrest', the F1 supremo replied: "I'd wait and see what happened and then decide. Up to now they've done everything they said they were going to do.
"They have internal politics and I doubt very much whether they'd use international matters to sort out internal politics," he added.
Regular readers will be delighted to know that Mike Lawrence is currently wading through the 500 page report and will be giving his own verdict on it and the chances of a 2012 event early next week. We are assured that for Ecclestone, and those others with a vested interest, it will not make comfortable reading.