Bahrain: an expensive folly is dead
To say that I am disappointed that there will be no Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend would be akin to saying that I am not a fan of motor racing, or that I don’t like shagging, or that I hate Paris. Bahrain’s ghastly circuit in the desert – a plaything of the Persian Gulf state’s Crown Prince – is everything that an F1 circuit should not be: remote, uninspiring, slow, dusty and not designed for racing. Ever since the first race in 2004, one watched the Bahrain Grand Prix for reasons other than the enjoyment of motor racing action. In the course of a racing season one needs to be able to engage with the team dynamics in various teams, to understand the relative performance differentials from car to car and generally to keep abreast of the F1 championship as it progresses. Bahrain served that purpose annoyingly and inadequately.
Watching the desert race each year was, truth be told, mostly an ordeal. I could just about put up with the awful race when it was simply one of many in the F1 championship season. What got my goat was when the Bahrain Grand Prix was elevated to the status of season opener in 2010. This was a kick in the bollocks. It was Bernie Ecclestone sticking two fingers up at the F1 world. It was chutzpah on a shocking scale.
But as everybody who has had to pay for their sins will tell you, there is a great wheel of justice in this world. The wheel may turn slowly, but turn it certainly does. Here we were waiting to begin the 2011 season in the Middle East when – bang! – a revolution began in Tunisia and spread across Egypt and up the Persian Gulf to Bahrain. Suddenly, no comfortable Westerner, least of all any rich Formula One driver, wanted to place himself at risk of kidnap or worse by flying out to the Middle East to participate in something as trivial as a motor race in March 2011.
As soon as Ben Ali of Tunisia hightailled it out of his palace to a sanctuary in Saudi Arabia, it was obvious to anyone who spent more than five seconds thinking about the thing that the Bahrain Grand Prix was toast. Suddenly, Ecclestone’s enthusiasm at abandoning trusted old F1 circuits in Western Europe was revealed in all of its cynicism. Race organisers, tour operators, hotels, airlines and sundry business people have lost their shirts in the whole debacle. Companies are laying off staff and lawsuits have been launched. Anybody at the receiving end of court documents or bank demands will be loath ever to reconsider the circus in the desert. I would go as far as predicting the death of Bahrain as a Formula One destination. Not too many tears will be shed if that is the case.
From its less than impressive debut onto the world’s motor racing stage, it was easy to predict that the Bahrain Grand Prix was never going to be a long term prospect. Since there is not a lot else to draw a punter to the country, once the novelty of a race in the desert had worn off, it seemed clear that interest in attending live races there or switching on a television to watch the race each year would eventually become more of a chore than anything else. Contrast that with, say, Australia. Punters flock there in their thousands because the country has a great deal more to offer than an impressive F1 circuit in Melbourne’s Albert Park. I did not, however, foresee how Bahrain’s death would happen. What killed the Bahrain Grand Prix was not lack of interest from fans but a long oppressed Arabic population rising up as one and saying “hang on a bit, why does this sheikh bloke have his foot up our arse? Why is he swanning about the world in private jets and Rolls Royces with our cash? Why don’t we tell him where to get off?” And they marched to the town square in Manama, threw a few stones about and declared “oi, Sheikh, we’d like a word with you!” Nothing is more likely to put the wind up mollycoddled Westerners than the sight of angry Arabs throwing stones.
The race was swiftly erased from the 2011 F1 calendar. But while cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix may be good news for those who loathed the circuit, it is terrible news for Bernie Ecclestone. Each circuit has to pay Ecclestone an agreed amount of money every time it hosts a race. The details of these amounts are obscure but the fact that the rights to host new F1 races have only been granted to opaque, “no-questions-asked” places like Bahrain and Abu Dhabi gives you some idea of their size. The owner of the Sakhir circuit has not handed over the requisite fat cheque and will not do so if there is no race at his folly in the desert this year. Behind Ecclestone are a bunch of hungry Private Equity investors who will most certainly have made their displeasure known to him. “Where’s the money, Ecclestone?” rings through the man’s ears each day like tinnitus. It is for this reason that Ecclestone is talking about trying to slot the race into the calendar at the end of the year. “We'll try and have a look and see what we can do, how we can swap things round a bit,” Ecclestone said. “Maybe we can change with Brazil, something like that.” I would not advise anyone to hold their breath.
Meanwhile, the Arab revolution is gaining momentum. In the teeth of fierce and bloody resistance from an enraged Colonel Gaddafi, the Libyans are arming themselves. Tunisia’s fires are still burning. Rumblings are spoken about throughout the region and have been heard loudly in Oman recently. Everyone’s holding their breath about Saudi Arabia. If the Sheikhs in the biggest Arab country get a taste of the Ben Ali or Hosni Mubarack medicine, we will all soon be feeling the heat as the oil price climbs higher than it has already. If that happens, we won’t just be looking back at the death of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Formula One itself will be six feet under. Get out your prayer books.
Gitau
08 March 2011
Watching the desert race each year was, truth be told, mostly an ordeal. I could just about put up with the awful race when it was simply one of many in the F1 championship season. What got my goat was when the Bahrain Grand Prix was elevated to the status of season opener in 2010. This was a kick in the bollocks. It was Bernie Ecclestone sticking two fingers up at the F1 world. It was chutzpah on a shocking scale.
But as everybody who has had to pay for their sins will tell you, there is a great wheel of justice in this world. The wheel may turn slowly, but turn it certainly does. Here we were waiting to begin the 2011 season in the Middle East when – bang! – a revolution began in Tunisia and spread across Egypt and up the Persian Gulf to Bahrain. Suddenly, no comfortable Westerner, least of all any rich Formula One driver, wanted to place himself at risk of kidnap or worse by flying out to the Middle East to participate in something as trivial as a motor race in March 2011.
As soon as Ben Ali of Tunisia hightailled it out of his palace to a sanctuary in Saudi Arabia, it was obvious to anyone who spent more than five seconds thinking about the thing that the Bahrain Grand Prix was toast. Suddenly, Ecclestone’s enthusiasm at abandoning trusted old F1 circuits in Western Europe was revealed in all of its cynicism. Race organisers, tour operators, hotels, airlines and sundry business people have lost their shirts in the whole debacle. Companies are laying off staff and lawsuits have been launched. Anybody at the receiving end of court documents or bank demands will be loath ever to reconsider the circus in the desert. I would go as far as predicting the death of Bahrain as a Formula One destination. Not too many tears will be shed if that is the case.
From its less than impressive debut onto the world’s motor racing stage, it was easy to predict that the Bahrain Grand Prix was never going to be a long term prospect. Since there is not a lot else to draw a punter to the country, once the novelty of a race in the desert had worn off, it seemed clear that interest in attending live races there or switching on a television to watch the race each year would eventually become more of a chore than anything else. Contrast that with, say, Australia. Punters flock there in their thousands because the country has a great deal more to offer than an impressive F1 circuit in Melbourne’s Albert Park. I did not, however, foresee how Bahrain’s death would happen. What killed the Bahrain Grand Prix was not lack of interest from fans but a long oppressed Arabic population rising up as one and saying “hang on a bit, why does this sheikh bloke have his foot up our arse? Why is he swanning about the world in private jets and Rolls Royces with our cash? Why don’t we tell him where to get off?” And they marched to the town square in Manama, threw a few stones about and declared “oi, Sheikh, we’d like a word with you!” Nothing is more likely to put the wind up mollycoddled Westerners than the sight of angry Arabs throwing stones.
The race was swiftly erased from the 2011 F1 calendar. But while cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix may be good news for those who loathed the circuit, it is terrible news for Bernie Ecclestone. Each circuit has to pay Ecclestone an agreed amount of money every time it hosts a race. The details of these amounts are obscure but the fact that the rights to host new F1 races have only been granted to opaque, “no-questions-asked” places like Bahrain and Abu Dhabi gives you some idea of their size. The owner of the Sakhir circuit has not handed over the requisite fat cheque and will not do so if there is no race at his folly in the desert this year. Behind Ecclestone are a bunch of hungry Private Equity investors who will most certainly have made their displeasure known to him. “Where’s the money, Ecclestone?” rings through the man’s ears each day like tinnitus. It is for this reason that Ecclestone is talking about trying to slot the race into the calendar at the end of the year. “We'll try and have a look and see what we can do, how we can swap things round a bit,” Ecclestone said. “Maybe we can change with Brazil, something like that.” I would not advise anyone to hold their breath.
Meanwhile, the Arab revolution is gaining momentum. In the teeth of fierce and bloody resistance from an enraged Colonel Gaddafi, the Libyans are arming themselves. Tunisia’s fires are still burning. Rumblings are spoken about throughout the region and have been heard loudly in Oman recently. Everyone’s holding their breath about Saudi Arabia. If the Sheikhs in the biggest Arab country get a taste of the Ben Ali or Hosni Mubarack medicine, we will all soon be feeling the heat as the oil price climbs higher than it has already. If that happens, we won’t just be looking back at the death of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Formula One itself will be six feet under. Get out your prayer books.
Gitau
08 March 2011
posted by Gitau at 4:04 pm
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