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30 October 11

Why Bahrain should be the most important race in Formula One’s recent history.

On March 17 the UK Foreign Office urged all Britons to leave Bahrain immediately. The Arab Spring uprisings had caught the attention of the western world as governments from northern Africa and the Middle East were challenged by swarms of protesters. As a result, power was ceded in Egypt and Tunisia, civil war broke out in Libya and major uprisings occurred in Yemen and Syria. In Bahrain demonstrations were met with heavy-handed tactics from forces employed by the government. They had been ongoing since February 14.

The 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix had been scheduled to take place at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir. Since joining the calendar in 2004, the race had been seen a bridge between Formula One’s traditional European base and the Middle East. It was set to open the season on March 13, but the protests forced the sport to postpone the race. The organisers would be given until May 1 to conclude whether the race would be rescheduled.

The Formula One circus continued its global tour, this time beginning in Melbourne, giving the teams an extra two weeks to iron out any preseason bugs. When Sebastian Vettel crossed the start line for the 58th time and was greeted by the chequered flag the sport had moved on. With or without a race in Bahrain, the teams still had an exhausting 19 other races to complete after Melbourne.

Despite ongoing protests and political instability, the deadline for the race organisers to announce a rescheduled event had been extended to June 3. With a calendar that was already one of the longest in the sports history, the only way to include Bahrain would be to lengthen the season. In this case, it would prove to be a highly unpopular decision.

At a meeting of Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, a decision to reinstate the event was made. The Indian Grand Prix would be shifted from October 30 to December 4, and Bahrain would take its place. A press release by the FIA insisted that a fact-finding mission at the request of FIA President Jean Todt had taken place. FIA Vice President, Carlos Gracia, met with Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Bahrain Motor Federation, Bahrain International Circuit as well as a member of the National Institute of Human Rights and a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) voted unanimously to reinstate the race.

The FIA stated; “This decision reflects the spirit of reconciliation in Bahrain, which is evident from the strong support the race receives from the Government and all major parties in Bahrain, including the largest opposition group, all of whom endorse the Formula One Grand Prix and motor sport in the country. The WMSC feels that reinstating the Grand Prix is a means of helping to unite people as the country looks to move forward, and also recognises the commitment made by the Formula One teams, their employees and families, and personnel associated with the Championship including the local team of volunteers who are so vital to the event.”

The decision was not taken lightly by those in and around the sport. Firstly, the teams were upset at the extension of the season and the logistical problems of the reschedule. Australian Formula One driver, Mark Webber, took to his website and criticised the decision to reinstate the race.  Webber felt the sport should have taken firmer action and says the decision “would have sent a very clear message about F1’s position on something as fundamental as human rights and how it deals with moral issues. It’s obvious that the parties involved have struggled to reach a decision but sadly I feel that they still haven’t made the right one.”

Mark Webber was unique among drivers in speaking his mind on the topic, saying “As a competitor I do not feel at all comfortable going there to compete in an event when, despite reassurances to the contrary, it seems inevitable that it will cause more tension for the people of that country.”

One week after the announcement, the event was officially cancelled and the Indian Grand Prix was restored to its original date. Correspondence letters between the FIA and the Formula One Teams Association was published on the FIA website where the teams outlined their logistical concerns and the FIA reiterated that despite asking the sport’s Commercial Rights Holder, the teams were obligated to compete. At the same time, organisers of the event announced that they were unable to host the event at any date and the debate had essentially ended. One week later, the FIA released an updated race schedule that was identical to the one prior to the Melbourne Grand Prix.

For 2012, the event has again been reinstated and is scheduled to be the fourth race of the season and held on April 22. Two provisional calendars were released in June and July of 2011 before the final calendar was announced on August 31. Despite this, many in the Formula One paddock are still sceptical as to whether the race should go ahead. There is still time for a resolution, but reports from Bahrain indicate that there is still trouble in the kingdom – on October 6 a 17-year-old male was reportedly shot and killed by a Bahraini Security Force pellet gun.

With that in mind, it brings into question why the event was reinstated in the first place. In hindsight the country was not fit to host the event, yet the sport’s decision makers saw past this. This glaring oversight casts further doubt on the decision to reinstate the event for 2012. It is apparent that the FIA and the sports commercial stakeholders will do their best to have a race in Bahrain and it remains to be seen the lessons learned in 2011 will become apparent to both the FIA, and the Bahraini Government.

Posted: 1:01 AM

A billion reasons the Indian Grand Prix will be the real winner this season.

In 2004 Formula One added races in Bahrain and China to its lengthening calendar. The move was part of the sport’s shift from its traditional European base into the new world. Austria’s A1 ring was the first sacrifice, but races in San Marino, Germany, France and occasionally Belgium would follow.

Broadening the reach of the sport made a lot of sense in 2004. Bahrain was willing to supply a lot of money to host the race and since then the profile has increased in the Middle-East region. Companies from around the region like Etihad and Emirates began sponsoring teams, and eventually cashed-up consortiums began taking stake in the sport’s top teams, with Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren all being part owned by these groups. Qatar began hosting their own MotoGP race, but it was Abu Dhabi who really took western motorsport to heart. They opened their wallets and weren’t content with having their own race, and so built a Ferrari theme park next to the circuit.

China offered a potentially huge new audience, and was another cash cow waiting to be milked. Races in the East had already proved popular in Japan and Malaysia, and with China being the upcoming mover and shaker in the world, the race was a perfect opportunity for the teams and their stakeholders to take advantage of this. Multinational companies like HSBC and HP changed their sponsorship decals for the new audience and BAR Honda went for a complete rebranding, with Lucky Strike being replaced by 555.

China’s influence on Formula One has not been as pronounced as the initial hopes would have predicted. In a twist of circumstance, Austria’s involvement in the sport has grown since its axing. The country has had three race drivers take to the grid, but more significantly won last season’s driver and constructor titles through Red Bull Racing. Their on-track contribution to the sport has greatly usurped that of China, Turkey, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and South Korea– the countries deemed more worthy of hosting a grand prix, and demonstrates that somewhere along the way, Formula One’s expansion lost its focus. However, the upcoming inaugural Indian Grand Prix presents the sport’s best opportunity since 2004 to increase the global spotlight on the sport.

When the five lights went black and Narain Karthikeyan eased his clutch out on the grid of the 2005 Australian Grand Prix, he became the first driver from India to compete in Formula One. The newly bought Jordan team were short on cash, something Karthikeyan supplied through his personal sponsor, the Tata group. Though his performances did not set the world alight, having an Indian driver in Formula One planted the seed for future interest from the region in the sport.

At the conclusion of the 2005 season, Karthikeyan and Tata joined Williams and spent two seasons as the team’s fourth driver. He was rarely seen in the car, but the Tata logo was prominent on the noses of the FW28 and FW29. Such was the impact and importance of burgeoning Indian market that Ferrari convinced Tata to buy space on their 2009 car as they increased their motoring presence off the track by purchasing Jaguar and Land Rover.

For the 2008 season, Spyker, (who was Karthikeyan’s old team, Jordan, in a previous guise) was bought by Vijay Mallya. As the owner of Kingfisher breweries and airlines, Mallya became one of India’s richest men. Having previously sponsored Toyota in 2007, he stepped out on his own with Force India. In what could have been an Indian super team, Mallya opted for the experience of Giancarlo Fisichella over the dollars of Karthikeyan.

Despite buying a second-hand team and racing a one-year-old, the team’s fortunes improved under Mallya. Showing his business savvy and favouring experience over national pride, the team refocused their resources on the upcoming season, and some canny design work earned them pole position and a subsequent second place in the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix. In the team’s four seasons they have finished 10th, 9th, 7th and currently sit in 6th place in the constructor’s championship.

While this has been happening, another Indian driver, Karun Chandhok, began his career in Formula One. For half of 2010 he drove for Hispania Racing Team before being replaced for sponsorship reasons. In 2011 Chandhok’s seat at Hispania was taken by his countryman, Karthikeyan, while he became the test and reserve driver for Team Lotus, racing for the team in the German Grand Prix.

The proliferation of India in Formula One is symbiotic of the sport’s impending race in the country. As teams and sponsors aim to leverage off this newfound interest, it only serves to increase the sport’s profile even more. There are over a billion reasons why an Indian Grand Prix should work, and unlike the other countries Formula One has expanded into, India already has a recent relationship with the sport.

Track designer Hermann Tilke has overseen the design of all of the new Formula One circuits since 2011. If he can translate the country’s enthusiasm for the sport into an exciting spectacle on track, the race will be deemed a success by the fans outside of India. No matter who stands on top of the podium in India, there are billions of potential winners for this event.

10 October 11

2011 Japanese Grand Prix review

Until Saturday afternoon, the top of the time sheets had been owned by McLaren’s Jenson Button. Buoyed by a three-year contract extension, the 2009 World Champion looked a class above the field in the opening three practice sessions.

For Button, Suzuka had become a second home race. He is the former poster boy for Japanese manufacturer Honda’s foray into F1, has a Japanese girlfriend and has the Japanese characters Ichi ban (number one) printed on top of his helmet. For this race he even replaced the Union Jack motif on his helmet with Japan’s rising sun.

However, on Saturday afternoon, Button’s supremacy over Suzuka’s figure-eight was usurped by Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. Needing one point to wrap up the title, the young German surprised his own team with a lap that put him on pole position. In a session where more cars elected to save their tyres than offer a qualifying lap, Vettel trumped the whole field with a lap that was only 1/100th of a second quicker than Button’s. Further down the grid, Kamui Kobayashi had the home crowd on their feet with his 7th place while Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher seemed to disrupt Lewis Hamilton enough that he was unable to tour the circuit quick enough and set a flying lap in Q3.

Come race day, Button was fired up to make amends for qualifying and to keep the championship battle alive. As the five lights went out he was forced onto the grass by the slow starting Sebastian Vettel. Though the world title had been essentially won at turn one, an aggrieved Button took to his radio demanding that Vettel be penalised for his start-line move. When nothing occurred, Button had to sit tight and let the race come to him. With all teams suffering severe tyre wear, his signature smooth driving style would be the perfect counterpunch to the aggression shown by his rivals.

By lap 9 the race began to sway in Button’s favour, as his slower teammate Lewis Hamilton was forced into the pits with a right-rear puncture. Not long after race-leader Sebastian Vettel headed to the pits after it became apparent his rear tyres had started to fade. Button followed a lap later and momentarily closed the gap at the front.

When Vettel stopped again on lap 19, Button again stopped a lap later but this time was able to gain track position over the German. Lap 24’s safety car offered an opportunity for Vettel to close the gap to Button, but it was Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso who would be the largest beneficiary of the intervention, as he later took the position from Vettel.

With the front three swapping positions, Michael Schumacher spent his afternoon breaking records and front wings. At 42-years-old, Schumacher broke Jack Brabham’s 1970 record of being the oldest driver to lead a grand prix. Somewhat fittingly, he broke another Australian’s front wing as he tussled with Mark Webber. The two shrugged the incident off in a way that Lewis Hamilton and Felippe Massa should take note of, as for the second race in a row the pair collided with Massa coming off worse for wear.

Kamui Kobayashi was unable to turn his translate his Saturday form into points. Despite his prayers from inside his cockpit on the grid, he slid down the order at the first corner and never recovered. Although he is revered for his bravery when it comes to overtaking, his race was a relatively quiet affair. This quiet approach was mirrored by his teammate, Sergio Perez, who despite his illness was able to drive the car into a points position by making fewer stops than the rest of the field.

Bruno Senna was not able to live-up to his surname at a track where his uncle helped shape the Senna legend. Vitaly Petrov in the other Renault had an admirable race to 9th place and was joined in the final points paying positions by Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg. Rosberg, who had started last on the grid, raced through the field and overtook both Force Indias having taken advantage of having an extra set of tyres due to his qualifying mishap. Both Force India cars raced well and it could be said that Adrian Sutil’s move on the inside of Kamui Kobayashi at 130R could have been worth points on its own. Alas, 11th place was the best he could offer.

As the race drew to a close, there were five world champions in the top six, the front three in different cars. Though he had fallen behind Alonso, Vettel was about to take the title of youngest ever back-to-back world champion from him. Alonso would get close to Button, but the checkered flag fell before he had the opportunity to overtake. As Button pulled up close to his pitwall to celebrate his victory, Sebastian Vettel followed him as he celebrated his second world title in a row. On a day where he lost the battle on track, he won the war to keep the number one on his car.

Coming into the race, for Sebastian Vettel to lose the title he needed to fail to score at all of the remaining races, while Jenson Button had to win them all. Button had done his best to make this happen, but in typical form, Vettel showed maturity and poise that defies his years. The home crowd’s favourite may not have delivered on race day, but their adopted son rose to the occasion. As Button’s named returned to the top of the timesheets in Suzuka, he did so with the rising sun shining from his helmet.

Themed by Hunson. Originally by Josh