“It is the first time in our team history that we have had to cancel a race of
the Porsche Supercup,” team principal Karsten Molitor said. “In the end we
have the responsibility for our employees.”
Following the cancellation of last year’s grand prix, Formula One’s rulers
confirmed last Friday their intention push ahead with this year’s race.
The announcement triggered an increase in the number and intensity of the
daily protests, which are now being witnessed by Formula One personnel,
including international media, at close quarters.
Although the rowdier demonstrations are confined to outlying villages after
dark, where youths and police trade tear gas and Molotov cocktails in
running battles, around 100 protesters managed to gather in Bab Al Bahrain,
the old souk in central Manama, yesterday afternoon, for a protest organised
by human rights activist Nabeel Rajab.
Maryam Al-Khawaja, the daughter of jailed activist and hunger striker
Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, was there demanding her father’s release.
Anti-Formula One slogans were also chanted.
Riot police used sound bombs to disperse the group after about an hour,
chasing protesters through the streets, with Rajab claiming that only the
presence of foreign journalists had kept them at bay that long.
“It’s positive now you are here, otherwise those guys would not respect us for
a second,” he said. “We would have been attacked by sound bombs, tear gas
and rubber bullets. This is the culture they have.
“None of them [the police] are from here. They are all brought in as
mercenaries from Pakistan, Jordan, Syria to take part in the crackdown, to
kill people, to repress people, to torture people.”
Zayed Alzayani, the chairman of the Bahrain International Circuit, had earlier
said that he could not understand why the race was being caught up in the
country’s politics. Rajab argued that it was because Formula One is “the
ruling family’s sport”.
“Because of crimes committed last year Bahrain was in international
isolation,” Rajab said. “Now Formula One is used as a PR tool to come out of
international isolation. The race is helping the ruling family.”
Some onlookers, however, were unimpressed by Rajab’s claims. One Indian-born
Bahraini remonstrated with him, saying: “You realise you are ruining the
economy for all of us? How can it sustain itself if you get the Formula One
cancelled?”
Nevertheless, the protests are due to increase as the weekend nears, with
three ‘Days of Rage’ due to begin tomorrow.
Rajab said that Formula One should have nothing to fear, condemning the use of
violence. “We don’t have anything personal against the sport but, whether it
is cancelled or not, we will try to get the benefit of the publicity,” he
said.
They are not doing badly on that score. As teams and drivers reconvene in the
Sakhir paddock this afternoon for the first time since March 2010, they do
so with strong words from Westminster ringing in their ears.