Storm in teacup whipped by World media over Bahrain GP?

[John S]

Report of how easy life & travel was for GP2 late stayers suggests yes.

According to the following paras, edited from a much longer piece on Pitpass.com, the GP2 boys and girls only real problem in Bahrain was getting any spectators.  
I for one think it was right for the GP to have gone ahead. Sport, unless it is itself the cause of country's internal political & social struggles, should not be dragged into the arguments IMHO.

When the F1 circus left town last Sunday, Bahrain dropped out of the headlines almost overnight, the media, like the sport, appearing to move on to pastures new, in F1's case Mugello and then Barcelona. However, with a further round of the GP2 Series taking place just a few days later, meaning that participants had to hang around in the Gulf state for another week, it was surprising that there was so little concern as to their safety considering the speculation over the F1 event.

On Twitter on Friday, Ferrari's Luca Colajanni wrote: "No moral or security questions/doubts for the GP2 race weekend in Bahrain? Something has changed in one week??" He had a point.

As it happened, like the Grand Prix, the two GP2 races passed without incident, then again, with FOM's cameras outnumbering the fans in the stands, it appears that both sides in the ongoing revolution have lost interest in the sport.
 
Away from the circuit, in the days between the Grand Prix and this weekend's event, our source says: "During the GP week we travelled back and forth from Manama on different highways and we saw lots of anti-riot police monitoring the problematic areas and towns. We saw a couple of deployments and a group of policemen advancing towards a neighbourhood. On Saturday morning we saw clashes in one of the highway crossings. A couple of cars burnt, lots of debris and armoured police cars, but nothing else. During these days, we twice went downtown and life was normal. We walked around the Souk and ate at a local restaurant. All absolutely normal.

"This week we did lots of kilometres around the island and around the main city. We avoided the 'problem' towns because the traffic at these places is very heavy and you could lose lots of time just to cross a town with no interest at all.

"It's true that some areas were fenced (around the former Pearl Square, for instance) and taken by Police but they were places you wouldn't normally visit. Cars of all types were flowing in and out giving a sense of life as usual."

Pitpass.com, Sat 28th April.

[Alianora La Canta]

Considering how much was whipped up by the seriously misguided (not to say against regulations) use of "UniF1ed" slogans by the circuit organisers, and how much the protestors had linked F1 specifically with the regime, it's not surprising the protestors shifted focus to other methods once F1 left town. GP2 never has been associated with the regime even though it's also funded by the same source.

Also, the people complaining worked out last week that the FIA doesn't care about regulations or safety, only about whether it makes money. The most hardline anti-Bahrain-2012 people are now waiting for the FIA to be depowered by the French courts the moment another circuit wants to copy Bahrain's idea of mixing F1 and politics (note that this could happen any time in the next 5 years).

Also, it seems odd to say that one would not normally visit Pearl Square. Two years ago, most of the teams stayed on that street...