Bernie Ecclestone describes Bahrain Grand Prix doubts as “nonsense” – Formula 1 news
Bernie Ecclestone has denied reports for the Bahrain Grand Prix to be in doubt.
Ecclestone rubbished the reports and said that the race is very much on and all the speculation surrounding the event has been drawn out of proportion unnecessarily.
Bahrain has been in state of unrest since late 2010 as the country is trying to stifle any negative forces standing up to the government. The 2011 Bahrain GP was dropped due to this issue and although Ecclestone defended dropping the event last year as well,
but in the end gave in to the political pressures.
Ecclestone even went so far to create an independent delegate which he sent to the country to analyse the situation. The delegation deemed the country safe but more political pressure changed the situation.
This year has been much of the same issue, raised by the Bahrain Human Rights Center saying that the country is committing human rights violations, and it should not be allowed to portray an image of peach when it is the opposite.
This time however the Bahrain government the organisers of the event and the political forces in Europe have shown support for the event.
“Of course the race is going to happen,” Ecclestone said. “No worries at all. What I don't understand are the negative statements being made, people catching them and continuing them. They're saying things they don't understand. People say to me 'There's
not going to be a race.' And I say 'Well how do you know?' And they tell me they saw or read something, but it's all nonsense.”
“These people [the Bahrainis] were brave enough to start an event in that part of the world, and that's it. We'll be there as long as they want us,” he added.
The race organisers have been aggressive this year for the event to go ahead and even gave the suspended employees who participated in the riots against the government their jobs back to show that the situation has changed in the country and there are no
security concerns.
One of the organisers also stated that the country will be as secure as any other city in the world.
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