Bernie Ecclestone must pull #F1 out of Bahrain now

I said on Twitter on Tuesday that if the Bahrain Government was going to fire on its own people, then the Formula One season opener due to take place on 13th March, as well as the testing the previous weekend, should be cancelled immediately.

I am horrified to see that Bernie Ecclestone, someone you may remember who gave a million quid to the Labour Party when they still had ethics, so you'd think he'd have a passing interest in human rights, has now left it to the Crown Prince of Bahrain to decide whether the race goes ahead.

Until now, the Crown Prince as portrayed to us has been that friendly, benign figure Martin Brundle talks to on the grid. I remember a couple of years ago that started with Brundle being uncharacteristically obsequious and ending with him patting HRH on the shoulder and taking his leave with a "take care".  Last year Eddie Jordan interviewed this man and did all but prostrate himself before him.

We've seen another side to Crown Prince Salman ibn Hamad Isa Al Khalifa, though, these past few days. He was in charge of the Army when they fired on their own people in Pearl Square Manama in a series of protests that has left 6 people dead and hundreds injured. His subsequent withdrawal of the Army and willingness to talk is, quite simply, too little, too late.

I'm assuming the reason Bernie wants the Bahrainis to make the decision is motivated by money and contractual issues. If FOM makes the decision to pull out, are they open to claims for costs incurred by the teams? However, if it's the Bahrain Government advising it isn't safe, would that minimise any liability?

The Telegraph reports that the teams are reluctant to go, but want the decision to be made for them, again, presumably, because they are worried about Bernie suing the backsides off them if they pull out unilaterally. Each of the dozen teams will have at least 30-40 people with them, from mechanics to catering staff to IT people. They will be concerned for their safety. The Bahrain Government might well say they can guarantee the safety at the Sakhir circuit itself, but it won't be a good look if people have to walk past tanks to get in, and you have to think about the safety of the teams as they make their way to and from the circuit. The F1 circus is actually scheduled to hit town at the beginning of March when the final test takes place, so they could potentially be there for almost a fortnight. I suspect that test will be moved to Jerez or Barcelona so that teams won't actually arrive in Bahrain until Tuesday 8th or Wednesday 9th March. That's still 6 days when the volatile situation could erupt.

Just say they do go ahead and things kick off during the race weekend. Would the Crown Prince order the Army to fire on the people? What level of brutality would be used to keep them off the streets? Surely Ecclestone can see that a massacre would not be a good thing for F1 to be associated with - especially when it could be avoided.

We have this crazy situation where the Foreign Office website advises against all but essential travel to Bahrain, yet Ecclestone leaves it up to someone with a vested interest to make the call, the same person who has already shown that he considers it acceptable to fire live ammunition on peaceful protesters whose demands were modest, to say the least.  Is it not time to find some moral fibre and realise that F1's presence in Bahrain at this time is not going to help?

I've never been a huge fan of the move to hold races in places like Bahrain and China where there is no concern for human rights. Amnesty's report on Bahrain wasn't that great before all this started with reports of torture that made me wince. Imagine being locked up just for criticising the Government or the Royal Family? It's something that we in this country can't really comprehend.  The situation has clearly deteriorated since then. For the safety of everyone, from the people of Bahrain to F1 and media personnel, that race should be cancelled immediately. To do otherwise would be to condone a repressive regime's attempts to cling on to power without legitimacy.

Help Save the British Grand Prix - Rennard style

How would you feel if your favourite sporting event was suddenly removed from the calendar?

Each year we have certain set iconic sporting events that we're aware of even if we absolutely hate the sports involved. How would you feel if the World Tennis Association decided not to hold a Grand Slam at Wimbledon anymore, or if the FA decided not to bother with the FA Cup, or if the Grand National was cancelled, or if Test Matches no longer happened in England any more.

The guy who holds the commercial rights to Formula One, the infamous Bernie Ecclestone, decided to give a 17 year contract for the British Grand Prix to Donington Park, a yet to be suitably expanded circuit near East Midlands Airport. Unfortunately, and as predicted by many, Donington's chances of holding the race have now fallen through. Silverstone, where the race has been held for many years, a circuit loved by fans, teams and drivers alike, could easily host the race again. Unfortunately, Bernie is doing some of his normal macho willy waving instead of doing anything sensible about securing the race's future.

If Silverstone is to host a race next year (and hopefully beyond) they need to start making arrangments soon. In fact, ideally, they should have done so by now, but it's still feasible. Those nice people at Brits on Pole who occasionally let me write for them so long as I promise not to crash their server have come up with a list of 5 things that people who want to see a British Grand Prix could do to try to influence the process.

I quite like the practicality of their ideas - they don't buy the idea that the internet, just by disappearing up its own backside in a frenzy can change things without real practical action. It's a bit like the idea that all the Facebook groups, twitter accounts and blogs in the world won't help if you don't get out on the streets door knocking and leafletting in the run up to the General Election.

Here are their 5 steps in full, but do click through to see their reasoning behind what they're doing:

"Demonstrate to Bernie that this race can still be successful
We know there’s absolutely zero point trying to get our views heard by Formula One Management. But there might be some mileage in demonstrating that the event can be profitable, even though three months’ worth of ticket-selling time has already been wasted. If you’re on tenterhooks waiting for tickets to become available, and aiming to be at the front of the queue to buy yours, turn your anticipation into something concrete with this Pledgebank pledge. We’re aiming get people who are planning or hoping to attend the race to show their support for it in a tangible way, so please consider signing up.

Let Silverstone know that you want to buy a ticket
Whether you preferred Donington, Silverstone or even an outside bet like Brands Hatch, it really is time to accept that it’s probably the old Northamptonshire airfield or bust, at least for 2010. Now, we respect the circuit’s need to come to an arrangement with Formula One management that is in its long-term commercial interest. And we know that a lot of ticket-selling time has been lost. But equally, we think it’s worth proving the strength of demand for this event. So, if you want to buy a ticket, make that clear. Let Silverstone know that you’d like to attend the race here. Ask them to inform you immediately if tickets go on sale.

Lobby the Formula One Teams’ Association
One of the few organisations in F1 that has shown any awareness that fans even have views – although if we are honest it has tended to be because those views accorded with its needs at the time. Even so, McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said recently: “A lot of changes that have occurred in Formula One over recent years haven’t really taken into account the wishes of fans and we haven’t brought those into the thought process. And hopefully in future we will see much more of that.” So we suggest letting FOTA know that you want the British Grand Prix to stay on the calendar. Find their contact details here.

Lobby your favourite team
Following on from FOTA, it is worth noting that the date of the Monaco Grand Prix has just been moved by a week – because that’s what the teams needed to happen. Help convince them to bring that power to bear on our behalf. You can find contact details for all the British-based teams here and many, such as Brawn GP, Red Bull and McLaren, also maintain a presence on Twitter, Facebook or other social media sites. Let them know that their fans want to see them race in Britain next July, and ask them to help make sure the event happens.

Contact your MP
It’s part of your MP’s job to represent your views to ministers. And they do take a great deal of notice of ‘background noise’ – what issues are currently of concern to their constituents. So we suggest using this website to let your MP know that the future of the British Grand Prix is important to you and to ask that he or she makes sure sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe is aware of that fact too. Keep it brief and polite. You might want to mention the importance of motorsport jobs to the British economy, the fact that the race is one of the country’s great sporting events, the development of important safety and eco-friendly technologies such as enhanced brake efficiency, run-flat tyres and KERS, or its potential to promote tourism and regional growth. Don’t fall prey to cynicism, this is undoubtedly worth doing – but we’ll say again, keep it brief and polite."

The more people who do this, the more likely we are to be able to influence the people who are making the decisions, so if you feel strongly about retaining one of the key dates in the British sporting calendar, please take a few minutes to complete these five steps - and if you can think of anything else useful, that's what the comments are for....

Peter Mandelson advising Bernie Ecclestone?

You're a Prime Minister in trouble trying to dodge the slings and arrows of outrageous Blairites. Your cabinet is disappearing faster than rats off a sinking ship. If this goes on much longer, you will have to appoint the Downing Street gardener as DEFRA secretary. What do you do? You sell your soul to the one person whose dark arts can smooth the troubled waters for the price of a fancy title and an enhanced job as Minister for Everything (or words to that effect). Even if you have to put up with the alleged fearsome strop, it's worth it to have your reputation saved.

You would think that getting the status and power to really kick ass within the Government would be enough of a challenge for the Guacamole One, but no, in his spare time, according to the Jewish Chronicle and Iain Dale, he's been helping Bernie Ecclestone get his foot out of his mouth after his faux pas at the weekend where he suggested that Hitler and Saddam were nothing if not efficient.

If that is the case, then Mandelson must be a bit of a glutton for punishment - you would think he had enough on his plate trying to sort the Government out and keep the mercurial PM on track without seeking out other lost causes to back.

I'm not so sure, though. The substance of Bernie's apology is not that great. He seems to think that democracy can't deliver strong change because people are unwilling to say what they really think. My interpretation of his apology is that he gets why his words were unacceptable to the general public, but I'm not convinced that he actually sees why they were wrong.

His comments to the Jewish Chronicle about having close Jewish friends smacks of the "I'm not racist but......." type thing.

My hunch is that Mandelson and Ecclestone might well have spoken privately, and Mandelson might have said words to the effect of "you prat, you're going to have to grovel to get out of this" but I suspect if Mandelson had been involved in the wording of the apology it would have ended after the words I'm sorry and not gone into some self justifying rant that did nothing more than re-insert the foot to the mouth. The Prince of Darkness is not so sloppy.

Iain Dale is trying to make out some sort of scandal associating the Labour Party with Ecclestone's comments, but that is I think just the usual mischief making on his part.

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It could be so much worse than having Gordon Brown as PM

We've all been complaining a lot about the pig's ear the Labour Government is making of the economy, of civil liberties, of, well, everything. Is there anything they are actually doing well?

Anyway, Bernie Ecclestone offered us a vision of an alternative which made me realise just how lucky we are. There are very few people I'd prefer Gordon Brown over, but Max Mosley is somewhere near the top of that list.

Bernie's interview was quite extraordinary - saying that Hitler was "able to get things done" - sure, it takes some organisational ability to carry out the detention and slaughter of millions of people based on their religion and sexuality, but that sort of atrocity is hardly something to boast about.

He had praise for Saddam Hussein as well, who was able to "control his country". Err, that was usually by genocide and torture, Bernie.

It's only in the light of those distasteful comments that his idea that Max Mosley would make a good PM pales almost into insignificance. However, after the mess Max made of Formula One, with his dictatorial style leading it to the brink of a catastrophic split a few weeks ago, I think we could safely say that Gordon Brown would do a better job.

Tom Harris has taken great exception to chick-lit novelist and Tory candidate Louise Bagshawe slagging off Bernie and reminding us all of the fact that he'd given a million to Labour and, then, entirely coincidentally, Formula One got an exemption from the tobacco advertising ban.

Tom seems to think that telling the truth is some sort of smear. I have no time for Bagshawe, but this was one of the rare things she got right.

But, going back to Bernie, I'm sure that anyone involved at a high level in any other sport would have to get the hell out if they expressed such highly objectionable views. Why should Formula One be any different?

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The Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone School of Charm - Lesson 1

Twitter has been buzzing today with reports from people at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, including Nickie. She posted this fabulous picture which shows off their very professional looking banner and t-shirts supporting the breakaway teams (FOTA) and politely calling for the removal of the FIA President and the commercial rights holder. They were standing near the pit lane exit.

It's not difficult to sympathise with Nickie and many other fans when you read what the said Max and Bernie have been up to in the last day or so.

Imagine there's a crisis in your world, you've seriously pissed off some key players -in fact, most of the people you work with. They've had enough of your antics and are going to leave you high and dry because you have been such a thrawn, glaikit numpty. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Scots vernacular, that means a stubborn, ignorant twit. Not only that, but virtually the entire world is pointing the finger at you and blaming you for what's happened. So what do you do?

You would think that you'd try to find some way of making amends, bringing people together, trying to move forward. But then if you were that sensible, chances are this crisis wouldn't have happened in the first place.

No, instead, you try to find a fig leaf of legal protection to hide behind and then give a long interview to the media in which you dismiss the people who are going to walk away from you as "loonies".

That is exactly how FIA President Max Mosley described some people within FOTA to the BBC. You can see the interview here. The BBC's fabulous anchor man gives the impression of handing him just enough rope. The best bits are between about 10 and 13 minutes in.

It's appalling that he could be so dismissive of people who have decades of experience in the sport and whose talents and expertise have built it up to be the worldwide phenomenon that it is now. The whole interview has the tone of a stern parent whose children have run away from home saying "Och, they'll come home when they're hungry." How patronising can you get?

To add insult to injury, you then have the commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone, in a live tv interview on the BBC saying, when confronted with the fact that the drivers have so far agreed with FOTA, that "drivers don't think". It was quite funny that he said this in front of David Coulthard, who has had a long and successful driving career and is still the Red Bull test driver.

Thee comments just show the lack of respect Max and Bernie have for the other key players in Formula One. They clearly think that they alone are responsible for its success. It's no wonder the sport's in crisis. I'm surprised the teams have put up with this sort of treatment for so long!

In other F1 news today, the Guardian reports on how the BBC is hopeful of getting out of its contract to show F1 if FOTA breakaway. Ha ha!

Times F1 journalist Ed Gorman tells us why Max Mosley should go.

And lovely Ross tells us F1 belongs to the people

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