THE MOST controversial Grand Prix of the 2012 Formula1 season, the Bahrain Grand Prix, finally came to an end with Sebastian Vettel clinching his first race of the season, followed by Lotus’ of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. Formula1 is a battle between drivers and teams, but there is also stiff competition between the engine manufacturers that provide their racing engines to the teams. After Mercedes locked out the podium in last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, Renault managed to the same (and the 4th place) in Bahrain!
While the on-track action is worthy of more space in this column of mine, it was the off-track coverage that really raised a lot of questions for the sport of Formula1. In separate incidents, mechanics of Sahara Force India and Sauber got an unexpected taste of the violent protests as their transport vehicles crossed the sensitive areas of Bahrain and narrowly missed cocktail bombs and masked protestors. Leaving the incidents and protests aside, the larger question that the sport faced was why was Formula1 racing in Bahrain altogether? Why could the teams and drivers not boycott the race even if the FIA and FOM gave a go-ahead? Could the sponsors not have pulled out on moral grounds?
Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to the valid questions that most Formula1 fans in Bahrain and across the world would have asked or wanted to ask the people connected to the sport. Bahrain’s annual race hosting fee adds a cool $40 million dollars to the Ecclestone run FOM (Formula One Management). Teams and drivers are contractually obligated to the FOM to participate in every sanctioned GP due to commitment made to central sponsors of the sport, the race organisers and more importantly the sports broadcasters.
As for the sponsors, exposure in the Middle Eastern markets is very crucial. As per Formula Money reports, the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix generated an estimated $90 million of exposure for all sponsors. On similar grounds, when the 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix was cancelled, sponsors nearly lost $95 million worth of exposure. In fact, as per the same report, the next five years is expected to garner half billion dollars of exposure for the sponsors in the Middle Eastern markets. With Formula1 being a complete numbers game, both on and off the track, one wonders if these were some of the many reasons for going ahead with the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix.
But while logic would drive Formula1 to race in Bahrain, one does wonder if the brand of Formula1 took a hit globally. There was a fair degree of arrogance that was displayed while deciding the fate of the Bahrain Grand Prix. While sport should be above politics, few critics did believe that by letting the organisers of the GP promote the ‘UniF1ied Bahrain – One Nation In Celebration’ campaign, the sport somewhere did choose sides in the political battles of the island kingdom.
There were silent protests along the roads leading to the Bahrain International Circuit, however, on the internet, a group calling themselves Hackers Anonymous did manage to bring down F1.com (Formula1’s official website) multiple times during the racing weekend. The group, who also brought down Gulf Air, Bahrain Grand Prix’s title sponsor’s website this weekend, claimed that their actions were to support the protestors. In my opinion, the sport could have well avoided the negative publicity that the Bahrain GP generated over the last fortnight, especially when the on-track action this season has created exciting entertainment for the F1 fan and is driving hordes of new fans to the sport!
Netizens Don’t Buy Bernie’s Justification For Force India ‘Blackout’
However, the one team that chose to act upon emotion in Bahrain was Sahara Force India. After their mechanics got caught out in an off-track incident, the team let a few of their staff leave for home (to the UK) after a special request was made. The team also ran a restructured program on Friday which saw them miss FP2, a decision that didn’t go down too well with the Ecclestone-controlled FOM. As a result, FOM TV allegedly edited out visuals of the Sahara Force India team in action during qualifying.
This act spiraled into angry fans world over thronging various social media speaking against the FOM and their ‘black out’, which also saw the fans miss Paul Di Resta’s flying lap in Q2! When questioned by the media on the alleged black out, Ecclestone’s immediate reaction was that fans weren’t necessarily interested in finding who qualified 9th or 10th and hence the cameras focused at the battle for pole.
When probed further, Ecclestone indicated that the team’s alcohol branding was the reason the TV editors had to cut them from the feed. However, it was interesting to note that Red Bull Racing, who have ‘Singha Beer’ as a sponsor received no such ‘editing’ in their footage and as a viewer, you must know that each team gets a sign off on their livery a couple of weeks before the race itself, especially when they are racing in territories where there are restrictions on alcohol or tobacco branding.
However, Sahara Force India stuck to their guns on-track and delivered their season’s best performance when Paul Di Resta secured 6th place by making the most of his two-stop tyre strategy. The team now lies 8th in the Constructors’ Championship table with 17 points, 1 point behind the WilliamsF1 team.
And India’s sole Formula1 driver, Narain Karthikeyan, was classified 21st out of the 22 finishers in the race. He finished the race half a second behind his team-mate, which indicates that both HRT drivers were racing for position. While the HRT car does seem to have made progress, the upcoming Mugello tests should hopefully give the team some much needed track time to gain ground on their competition.
The 2012 Formula1 season has been one of the closest fought seasons off late and with the Spanish Grand Prix now three weeks away, the Formula1 fans will have to wait longer for the on-track action to resume.
