In the circumstances, qualifying was almost an irrelevance.
Vettel’s pole, his first of the season after collecting a record-breaking 15
last term, was good news for Red Bull.
But the main story of the day, on track at least, revolved around Force India
whose cars received virtually no air time on the international feed despite
Paul di Resta making it to the final qualifying session.
The feed is controlled by Bernie Ecclestone’s FOM company and speculation
immediately arose that it may have been payback for their decision to pull
out of second qualifying on Friday in order to return home before nightfall.
Ecclestone is understood to have been unhappy with that decision, taken in the
wake of the team’s close shave with a firebomb attack on Wednesday night,
given the impression it gave of unease in the paddock just as he was trying
to restore calm.
Ecclestone, though, denied any involvement. “I was busy and didn’t notice
Force India were not on,” he said. “I suspect it was more to do
with the Bahrain laws on no alcohol advertising. They should have taken it
off.”
Force India declined to comment but The Sunday Telegraph understands
that the Silverstone-based team checked well in advance that they could
carry Whyte MacKay logos on their cars and overalls this weekend.
McLaren sponsor Johnnie Walker does not advertise at this race but it is
understood it makes that choice voluntarily, out of respect for local
customs, rather than out of necessity.
In any case, Ecclestone later suggested the lack of screen time may have had
more to do with Force India’s lack of pace. “Nobody cares if someone is
ninth or 11th,” he said.
If it was proven that Force India had been purposefully snubbed, it would be
both scandalous and petty, but the sport has bigger problems right now.
Formula One is not coming out of this week well and team principals are
starting to hit back.
Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn voiced his frustration at British
politicians, in particular shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, for
suggesting this week that British drivers such as Hamilton and Jenson Button
should boycott the race.
“I find it very frustrating that politicians in the UK were saying that we
should withdraw once we got here,” Brawn said.
“Why didn’t they say that beforehand? For somebody to try and make Jenson
Button and Lewis Hamilton determine the foreign policy of a country is
wrong.”
Even Todt, who has barely said one word in public about Bahrain all year, was
battling to restore a sense of order.
The Frenchman, who has been so enraged by the coverage in British newspapers
this week that he refused to speak to any of them yesterday, was cautious on
the subject of the dead protester.
“We know protests can have a negative result,” he ventured to the
BBC. “We are a governing body running sport. I am not sure the protests
would not have happened if the grand prix would not have happened.”
Todt added, incredibly, that the FIA would take the same decision to race here
if it had a vote today: “I am convinced there is no new evidence that would
make the decision (to hold it) different.”
The truth is Todt is no longer in control. He is a passenger. Formula One is
just crossing its fingers now; that the protests today do not get out of
hand, that a protester does not sneak into the race with a ticket and do
something stupid.
That is far from guaranteed. The body of the protester – a 36-year-old man
called Salah Abbas Habib Musa – was taken away for an autopsy, but his
friends and family were hopeful they could bury it within 24hours as is
Islamic custom.
That would certainly add an unhappy frisson to today’s planned protests.
Whenever it happens, though, activists said it would be billed as the ‘Formula
One funeral’.
Unfair, perhaps, given the cause of death has not yet been established and
clashes between police and protesters were taking place long before Formula
One got here. But when anger and emotion collide, reason does not tend to
figure.