Web hackers Anonymous on Friday night took over Formula
One’s official website to “fight for freedom and justice in
Bahrain”.
The situation has become so febrile that Ed Miliband, the leader of the
Opposition, on Friday called on the Government to put pressure on Formula
One to cancel the race.
David Cameron responded by saying that it was a decision for the sport.
“Bahrain is not Syria,” the Prime Minister noted. “There is a process of
reform on its way and this government backs that reform and wants to help
promote that reform.” It was just another example of how this race has
become politicised. There is a feeling in Bahrain that Formula One has
become a tool of government — both ours and theirs — to help a key ally in a
volatile region on the path to reform.
It may be a noble cause but not what many of the sport’s travelling army, the
engineers, the media, the catering staff, signed up for. Or their families.
The wife of one of those engineers was practically in tears on a Radio 2
discussion on Friday.
But the sport presses on. It has to. To cancel now, as Bahrain’s Crown Prince
said on Friday, “would simply empower extremists”. What kind of message
would that be four months before London hosts the biggest sporting show on
Earth?
The fact is the sport should not have come here in the first place.
That much is clear now. We received mixed messages beforehand, the authorities
claiming that such rioting as there was confined to outlying villages and
districts, with Manama a haven of calm. And for the most part it is. But
successive nights have seen teams caught in the crossfire and the situation
is escalating. Formula One is helping it to escalate.
Bernie Ecclestone, the sport’s chief executive, and Jean Todt, the president
of the governing body, have a lot on the line. Ecclestone, in particular,
after 81 years of scrapping his way to a fortune, is used to tough questions
but should things go wrong very tough questions will be asked. To what
extent did commercial and political interests cloud their judgment?
It is why everyone tried so hard to pass the buck last week, with Ecclestone
saying it was up to the teams, the teams saying it was up to the FIA and the
FIA saying nothing at all.
Ultimately, however, those two carry the responsibility for Formula One being
here. Sure, the teams and drivers and sponsors could have boycotted the race
but they, too, rely to a certain extent on the information they receive from
above.
Ecclestone was his usual flippant self when asked for his thoughts on events
this week. “It’s a lot of nonsense,” he said. “I think you guys want a
story, and it’s a good story, and if there isn’t a story you make it up as
usual, so what difference?”
It was the same in China last weekend when he was asked about the protests.
“What protests?” he countered.
Such comments do both him and the sport no credit, making him sound
insensitive to the very real concerns which people out here are literally
dying to draw attention to.
The sad thing is this crisis was entirely predictable. Formula One journalists
have copped a certain amount of criticism this week for venturing into areas
of conflict to ask for people’s thoughts about the race, to try to report on
what is happening. For deigning to be reporters, in other words.
What did the Bahraini and Formula One authorities think? That they would sit
in their hotels all week, only venturing to the track to talk about rear
wings and F-ducts?
Now we are where we are. The best possible outcome will see the sport emerge
through the weekend unscathed. Even then it has been some terrible PR.
The worst case scenario? It doesn’t bear thinking about. But it could mean
Todt and Ecclestone are gored on the horns of a dilemma of their own making.