FIA confirms Bahrain off, inaugural india race on

Formula One’s governing body formally struck the Bahrain Grand Prix off the 2011 calendar on Wednesday and restored India’s inaugural race to its original Oct. 30 date.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) said in a statement that a fax vote of its World Motor Sport Council had been unanimous in ratifying the calendar after recent controversy over attempts to reinstate Bahrain.

“The inaugural Indian Grand Prix will take place on October 30th…and the season will conclude in Brazil on November 27th, 2011,” the FIA said.

Bahrain was no longer listed.

The decision left the Formula One championship with 12 remaining races, after seven to date, and made sure the teams who had opposed any extension of the calendar into December, were listened to.

The latest FIA vote was little more than a formality after Bahrain had announced last week that it accepted the race could not go ahead and would no longer be seeking to host it.

Bahrain was originally scheduled as the March 13 season-opener but the race at Sakhir circuit had to be postponed due to bloody civil unrest in the Gulf kingdom.

Formula One’s commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA gave the Bahraini authorities months to decide whether to seek reinstatement of the race, postponing the deadline to the start of June.

The decision this month to restore the race to the calendar, with Bahrain taking India’s slot and the New Delhi race shifted to Dec. 11, was also announced as unanimous but proved highly controversial.

While welcomed by the Bahrain authorities, that move was opposed by teams on logistical grounds.

The reinstatement also angered human rights campaigners, with one online petition against the race going ahead claiming more than 460,000 signatures.

Bahrain lifted emergency law only this month after crushing anti-government protests and tensions remain high.

The race remains on the FIA’s provisional 2012 calendar as the March 11 season-opener, although one of the 21 races is expected to be dropped

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Bahrain Grand prix dropped for 2011

The organizers of the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix said on Thursday they had abandoned plans to hold a 2011 race after controversy on rescheduling the event postponed by turmoil in the Gulf nation.

“Whilst Bahrain would have been delighted to see the Grand Prix progress on October 30th in-line with the World Motor Sport Council’s decision, it has been made clear that this fixture cannot progress and we fully respect that decision,” Bahrain International Circuit chairman Zayed R Alzayani said in a statement.

“Bahrain has absolutely no desire to see a race which would further extend the calendar season detract from the enjoyment of F1 for either drivers, teams or supporters,” he said.

Earlier this month Bahrain lifted a state of emergency it imposed in mid-March when it crushed month-long protests with the help of military intervention by its Gulf neighbors in a crackdown which left 30 dead.

But debate over the suitability of giving Bahrain a revised date on the Formula One calendar had heated up this week, with teams citing not the political turmoil but the logistical difficulties of changing the schedule so late in the season.

Bahrain had been originally scheduled to host the season-opening race on March 13, but on February 21 it was postponed.

On June 3 it was reinstated with a provisional date of October 30.

That plan, however, called for the Grand Prix scheduled in India on October 30, at a new $350 million 5.14-kilometre (3.2-mile) circuit on the outskirts of New Delhi, to be pushed back to December.

This week objections from various parties involved in the sport had been mounting.

The Formula One Teams’ Association (FOTA) wrote to the International Motoring Federation (FIA) and to F1′s commercial ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone stating that it did not want the calendar changed at such late notice.

The chief executive of the Williams team, Adam Parr, said: “It’s not about whether the (Bahrain) race goes ahead, it’s about whether we change the calendar at this stage of the season – and that’s what we’ve written.

“The issue that we’re concerned about is that fans, sponsors, teams, have made logistic arrangements to be in India for a particular weekend, 30 October, and we’ve been presented with a calendar where it’s on 11 December.

“How do you say to people who have booked a two-week holiday in India to take in the Grand Prix, ‘sorry you’ll be in India, but we won’t'?”

In a reply to FOTA’s letter, FIA president Jean Todt of France said he had asked Ecclestone, the series’ commercial rights holder to “re-examine his calendar proposal and, if necessary, to resubmit a revised proposal to the World Council.”

While the FIA had been expected to make a final announcement confirming cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend during the Canadian Grand Prix, Alzayani’s announcement effectively settled the issue.

“We want our role in Formula One to continue to be as positive and constructive as it has always been, therefore, in the best interest of the sport, we will not pursue the rescheduling of a race this season,” he said in the statement.

“We look forward to welcoming teams, their drivers and supporters back to Bahrain next year,” the statement added.

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Bahrain GP likely to be cancelled Ecclestone

The reinstated Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix is likely to be cancelled because of opposition from teams, commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone said on Wednesday.

“Hopefully there’ll be peace and quiet and we can return in the future, but of course it’s not on,” the 80-year-old told the BBC.

“The schedule cannot be rescheduled without the agreement of the participants… they’re the facts.”

The race in the Gulf kingdom was originally scheduled for March 13 but had to be postponed due to civil unrest.

The governing FIA said on Friday Bahrain would be reinstated for Oct 30, a date originally assigned to India’s inaugural race, but the teams have rejected that and their written agreement is required for any date change.

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