Bahrain

[Scott]

No, as a sports journalist, I think he should stay out of it.  Just as I wouldn't pay any attention to a political journalist writing about sport.

We all have opinions about everything we know about, but if your job is to report on F1, it is arrogant to report on politics in an F1 column or blog.

[Scott]

In purely racing terms, it's not even a good circuit.  Were it not for the money that Ecclestone receives, there would be no race there anyway. 

So true.   

[John S]

In purely racing terms, it's not even a good circuit.  Were it not for the money that Ecclestone receives, there would be no race there anyway.  This all comes back to his, and CVC's, needs (greed in my view), combined the investments of some of the teams.  I'd rather have an old European track reinstated in its place, but that won't happen because European governments don't tend to fund Formula 1 race venues.

Well it's certainly a lot better than Hungary, Valencia, Zandvoort, or Zolder for that matter. 

 

[vintly]

No, as a sports journalist, I think he should stay out of it.  Just as I wouldn't pay any attention to a political journalist writing about sport.

We all have opinions about everything we know about, but if your job is to report on F1, it is arrogant to report on politics in an F1 column or blog.

In essence I agree but there's politics, and then there's politics. What I mean, is that in this case there's the political structure and history in Bahrain, with a myriad of factors affecting it, far beyond what the interested observer (me) or an occasionally visiting F1 reporter (Joe Saward) can fully understand, so hence maybe we shouldn't get too involved with those details. But, there's a basic human rights story here too, which isn't politics, it's life - and it's something that every man, woman and child should be afforded by rights. Hence when they are not being afforded to a section of a population when the ruling elite say there's no problem, in light of an F1 race, the two are intertwined, and very worthy of comment, by journalist and observer alike.

I don't have a problem with Joe Saward having a different view than mine (Gawd help us if we all thought the same), but to parade his view as 'two sides to the argument' is downright tosh.

[cosworth151]

I have to disagree, John. Zandvoort is a far superior circuit to Bahrain. Speaking of Zandvoort, I recall that one of the reasons given by F1 for leaving that track was that too much sand got on the racing surface. Sound like any current venues?

[Irisado]

Well it's certainly a lot better than Hungary, Valencia, Zandvoort, or Zolder for that matter. 

I actually liked the Hungaroring when there were more gravel traps, because it was a track which did punish drivers when they made mistakes.  The loss of the gravel at a number of corners, including the blind turn four, has made it a much less interesting circuit for me though.

I don't count Valencia as a circuit, since it was nothing more than a glorified car park .

Anyway, the point is that Bahrain really isn't a good track at all.  It has no memorable corners, and I can't recall any moments of real drama there, apart from the political situation, and that says it all.

Todt speaks.  Quite how he reaches the conclusion which he does though, I'm not entirely sure.

[Willy]

Bahrains human rights record more then makes it reason enough for the F1 circus to give that country a miss.
There are plenty of places that would happily welcome F1 where people are not being killed by the regime to stage this beacon of automotive excess.

[lkjohnson1950]

Places like Shanghai, China

[Dare]

I don't know what is better in the Middle East, to leave strong dictators in power for stability's sake or push for democracy and then stand back waiting to see how it shakes out in a decade or two. 

I think most of us agree that perhaps a race shouldn't be held there just to fuel the propaganda of everything being right in Bahrain though, so to have an F1 journalist dive in on the same side is a bit shameful.   

That said, yeah, I'll be watching from my couch.

Are  the Iraqi people any better off without Saddam
than with?I know our economy isn't.I think Iraq is a
far more dangerous place than before.I have my
doubts on our motives for being in Iraq or Afghanistan.

[lkjohnson1950]

I'm pretty sure we went to Iraq because George W. Bush held a grudge against Saddam for trying to assassinate his father.

[Dare]

I'm pretty sure we went to Iraq because George W. Bush held a grudge against Saddam for trying to assassinate his father.

or to get Saddam because Bush the elder couldn't

[Alianora La Canta]

Wow! Not much respect here for one of F1's premier journalists. I'm guessing he gets touchy when people piggyback on his work to push their own barrow.

I've learned more about what is happening in Bahrain from Joe's blog than any other source.  That's different from claiming he tells the whole story, by the way.

A lot of the reporting on Bahrain has been incredibly tabloid, but if anyone tries to point that out, they get howled down by the very mob that the sensationalist press pander to.  Somehow simply presenting some actual insight and facts is equated to condoning everything the Bahrani regime has done.

Cam, Joe used to be perhaps the finest F1 journalist in the paddock. That made his transition downwards in quality (which I believe happened in the span of a few short months early in 2010) all the more painful to watch. A lot of the the news items he came out with after that turned out to be blatantly wrong (in ways that made it obvious he was seeing what he wanted to see rather than what was there) and many others have turned out to be... ...dubious. (Did you know, for example, that there's three different "oppositions" in Bahrain, orientated around religion, civil rights and non-violence respectively? A check at the protest patterns on Twitter demonstrates that, and last I checked Joe was claiming there was only one opposition group (Al-Wefaq and its allies)). This makes it difficult to trust anything he says any more.

(Paranthetically, what Joe says about Al-Wefaq being fundamentalist and anti-equality is true, though they prefer not to broadcast this. An example of their unintentional bias against women was discovered by Kate Walker last year. Despite being introduced to an Al-Wefaq MP as a journalist, she was denied his business card while all the male journalists received one. Hardly an illustration of equality from the Al-Wefaq representative).

Compounding Joe's problems with credibility is that he decided to open a comments section, apparently for pure cheerleading purposes, without realising or caring that a comments section is a community space, just like a forum or a workplace water-cooler, and tends be used accordingly. If you open a community, you must be preparared to manage it. Joe could usefully learn lessons from Wizzo in this respect.

I enjoy reading the work of good journalists and am pleased when new ones join their ranks. It's sad to see previously-good journalists leave their ranks, especially when it's to become a bad one.

Mostly though, I'm relieved nobody in F1 got injured or killed this weekend. I note Bahrain had to step up their security to do it (which it's done through being more targeted in its interventions - their approach was a bit more scattergun last year). Whether the FIA will survive the self-destructive act it made by putting Bahrain on last year despite a blatant breach of its own Statutes is another matter. Remember, if the 12-month international racing ban the regs suggest should have been issued had been imposed last year, that ban would only end next month. The statute of limitations should another country or entity wish to take the FIA to court over allowing overtly politicised marketing materials doesn't end for another 4 years, and if any take up the invitation, the FIA will lose its power over all motor sport...

[Monty]

I think that much of the media coverage regarding Bahrain has been poor.
I am not going to get into the politics because (like most of the journalists) I do not fully understand the issues.
What I do know is that ever since Bahrain ceased to be a British Protectorate there have been major problems with a mainly Sunni leadership trying to govern a Shia population. However, conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims is widespread across much of the Arab world and I would guess that only the people directly involved can fully understand the intricacies of this complex cultural anomaly. For me the big question is 'what does sport / motor sport have to do with any of this?' F1 visiting Bahrain brings the question of Human Rights to a world audience so it must be positive. Other than that it is an international sporting event that is good for the Country and must therefore be good for the people of the country.
To put things into context the deaths and injuries resulting from conflict in Bahrain total in the tens, more died in riots in China, through the years there have been worse problems in Spain (Basque conflict) and the UK (Northern Ireland) and to geographically spread the pain, a poor journalist could probably take issue with the USA - Mexico relationship. F1 has or does operate in all of these Countries without complaint.
As I have said; I do not understand Bahrain (or indeed any of the other issues I have raised simply as comparisons) and I am certainly not making any judgements. I just think that sport and politics are, and should remain, unconnected.

[Alianora La Canta]

Perhaps if the Bahraini organisers had listened to monty last year and not done the "UniF1ed" campaign, and if the Bahraini government wasn't paying for the race in an attempt to make themselves look good, the sport/politics ideal could be maintained in this case. Sadly they are interwoven, and we can only deal with the matter as it stands (while acknowledging parts of the matter are in shadow).

[Irisado]

To put things into context the deaths and injuries resulting from conflict in Bahrain total in the tens, more died in riots in China, through the years there have been worse problems in Spain (Basque conflict) and the UK (Northern Ireland) and to geographically spread the pain, a poor journalist could probably take issue with the USA - Mexico relationship. F1 has or does operate in all of these Countries without complaint.
As I have said; I do not understand Bahrain (or indeed any of the other issues I have raised simply as comparisons) and I am certainly not making any judgements. I just think that sport and politics are, and should remain, unconnected.

In an ideal world they would, but they cannot, because the race is directly controlled, and linked to the Bahrain government, that's the difference vis ā vis the Spanish, and British events, for example.  You also cannot really compare Spain and the UK to Bahrain, as ETA, and the IRA are/were groups running bombing campaigns to undermine, or threaten, democratically elected governments; and that's not what's happening in Bahrain.

Note that I'm not saying that either the Spanish or British governments are completely innocent when it comes to handling their respective peace processes (e.g. the GAL scandal in Spain, and Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland), but that's a discussion for a separate thread.