Bahrain GP Debate

I might have misinterpreted this, but I'm thought there was something about Domenicalli and Mallya sitting on the WMSC, and voting in favour of the re-scheduling of Bahrain. Now with the team hats back on, vote in a different way.

Or is this just the effect of voting as one in the form of FOTA; while teams may be more/less agreeable, a collective opinion was bashed out and the 'unanimous' vote of FOTA put forward

All very confusing and these jokers are ridiculing our beloved sport.
 
Unless the teams agree to the schedule change, as per article 66, it will be back to how it was last week; India on October 30th, no Bahrain.

Lots of little power plays going on here it would seem.

The teams deliberately didn't object until after the WMSC vote - presumably to give the FIA a black eye?
Bernie keeps straddling the fence, only coming down on the side of whoever seems to have the upper hand at the time.
Max Mosley must be loving it being able to claim the moral high ground.
 
It looks like they're all trying to fulfil their contractual obligations really - Bahrain petition the FIA to reinstate, the FIA duly investigate, report & vote to reinstate (Bernie is included in this process), before Bernie rallies FOTA to object on logistical grounds. The race is therefore cancelled, India gets it's original slot back, and everyone gets to claim their bit of moral high-ground whilst avoiding a nasty unnecessary legal wrangle. Actually it's all rather neat & tidy, once the dust settles.

(with thanks to a post by OldBoy on Muzz)
 
Neat & tidy?

A farce of biblical proportions more like.

The FIA can't ever claim any moral high ground either, the race should never have been reinstated.
 
Well, obviously not neat or tidy from our viewpoint, but certainly from a legal standpoint - this way there can be no litigation, as all the "correct" protocols according to their rulebooks have been adhered-to.

But - I concur wholeheartedly. The race should have been cancelled from the outset and never re-instated, and the steady drip-feed of pantomime-like "it's back on" and "oh no it isn't" looks monumentally stupid to the outside world.
 
Brogan said:
The teams deliberately didn't object until after the WMSC vote - presumably to give the FIA a black eye?
Click to expand
Is it possible to object to the outcome of a vote before it takes place?

Anyway, as I understand it, the teams did collectively make their concerns known (i.e. that they didn't want to go to Bahrain this year) to the FIA at Monaco. It's just that they were ignored.
 
I can't help but wonder if all of this political wrangling will have any impact whatsoever on the issues that the Bahraini people have been dealing with for some time, and will continue to deal with into the foreseeable future.

When the majority is ruled by the minority, there will be unrest. Especially when their differences are centered around religion. Motor racing is inconsequential in this scenario.
 
This whole sorry episode has been nothing more than a colossal arse-plating exercise for all the parties concerned, and the needs/rights/grievances of the Bahraini populace has figured not at all in their calculations - only the need to protect their investment and self-image.

So no - not one hungry mouth will be fed, or wrongly-imprisoned protestor will be freed as a result of all this ridiculous hoo-hah. After all - according to the FIA report, there's nothing happening in Bahrain anymore anyway! It's all normal, apparently...
 
International sporting events boycotting South Africa did have a great influence on ending aparthied.FIFA banned them from international football competition and even F1 banned the race due to aparthied.
These bans addded to the isolation of South Africa and eventually aparthied collapsed.
 
What are the chances of Bahrain being reinstated as a last minute replacement for India when the realise the new track isn't going to be ready...? Doesn't that disolve at least the publicly stated objection of the teams...? Bernie charges India anyway as a penalty for not being ready, and gets paid by Bahrain for the race...

Who has to give India the safety certificate... the FIA isn't it? Aren't they the ones with egg on their face as it stands right now?

I don't think this story is over, although personally would like to see Bahrain take a year off to sort itself out and F1 can go back next year. I don't know who or what to believe on the politics (and please, I am not asking CTA readers to inform me! ;))
 
:snigger:...and so the hot potato promptly flies in Bernie's direction...

Presumably he will then have a quiet word in the Crown Prince's ear and we will shortly get an announcement that "for the good of the Bahraini people this year's GP will be suspended until 2012"...India will stay on the 30th Oct and the teams' personnel will get to be home for Chrimbo...
 
Oh and my comments earlier about the teams playing silly buggers appear to be correct.

letter1.webp

letter2.webp


If anything, FOTA are the ones who look most foolish in all of this.
They approve of the changes to the calendar and then formally object to them?
 
What is Todt talking about?! "Last minute objections"?! Jean, do you mean "OK, so we totally ignored our own charter and tried ramming it through, and now you're stopping it in accordance with the charter so we're going to blame you guys rather than admit we messed up." Seems Jean took some lessons from Max after all.
 
Mezzer said:
What is Todt talking about?! "Last minute objections"?! Jean, do you mean "OK, so we totally ignored our own charter and tried ramming it through, and now you're stopping it in accordance with the charter so we're going to blame you guys rather than admit we messed up." Seems Jean took some lessons from Max after all.
Click to expand

I think the comparisons with Max (who has been trying to undermine Todt since he was forced from power) are grossly unfair. I had my misgivings about him but Todt has been nothing but an absolute gentleman since he took over the presidency and any climb-down regarding the decision to reintroduce Bahrain to the calendar would be in keeping with his conciliatory approach. Max would’ve simply threatened the teams with legal action. I also think his old mate Bernie is playing the devil’s advocate when he was largely the driving force behind the reinstatement of the race. He realises the FIA have made a faux pas by not having an official agreement with the teams in place and has latched onto it but beneath it all he knows cancelling the race entirely would leave a big hole in his and CVC’s pocket.
 
If I'm not mistaken, the "representative of the Commercial Rights Holder (who also represents the Formula One Constructors) who proposed the changes to the calendar" is Bernie.

So he either misrepresented the teams or the teams misrepresented themselves.

Either way I don't see how the FIA can be blamed in this instance as they acted in good faith.
 
Quintessentially said:
I think the comparisons with Max (who has been trying to undermine Todt since he was forced from power) are grossly unfair. I had my misgivings about him but Todt has been nothing but an absolute gentleman since he took over the presidency and any climb-down regarding the decision to reintroduce Bahrain to the calendar would be in keeping with his conciliatory approach. Max would’ve simply threatened the teams with legal action. I also think his old mate Bernie is playing the devil’s advocate when he was largely the driving force behind the reinstatement of the race. He realises the FIA have made a faux pas by not having an official agreement with the teams in place and has latched onto it but beneath it all he knows cancelling the race entirely would leave a big hole in his and CVC’s pocket.
Click to expand

I agree with that, I don't like what Bernie is doing with Todt...Todt is the president of the FIA now leave him alone...
 

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