No team orders at Lotus

Close, but no cigar. Kimi Raikkonen looked like he was ready to kick himself for not winning the Bahrain Grand Prix last weekend, after he finished second in the race, three seconds behind Sebastian Vettel, who took his first win of the season.

Analysing the race, things do tend to look a bit clearer a few days later. And if Lotus had employed team orders a bit earlier in the race, at a time when Romain Grosjean could have been ordered aside to let Kimi pass more easily, the Finn might have won the race. But even though team orders are legal from 2012, Lotus team principal Eric Boullier said that they do not use team orders at all.

“We don’t want to play team orders, so we let them race normally and what happened, happened,” said Boullier.

Kimi Raikkonen said after the race that he was disappointed no to be winning, but the race showed that Lotus has the speed.

“Yeah,” said Raikkonen, “but there are no team orders and we know the rules. “I tried to get past as quickly as I can but it’s not easy with two similar cars.

“It’s always easy to say afterwards ‘if we had done that’ but in the end we were not fast enough to win and we have to take the second,” he added.

 

Did Force India refuse to remove alcohol advertisement?

One of the stories that circulated during the weekend of the Bahrani Grand Prix, was that Force India had chosen to withdraw from the second free practice session, in order to get back to the hotel safely. A reasonable decision, considering four team members were involved in an incident on Wednesday, when leaving the Sakhir International Circuit.

Then during Saturday´s qualifying round, not a single image appeared showing the Force India cars, promptly starting rumours that Bernie Ecclestone had somehow blocked the team from exposure on the TV feed, since he is controlling FOM and thus controlling what goes out to the viewers. But there were a few issues tat kept bothering me. One was that Force India left the circuit on Friday, a full two hours after the second practice session was over, which then made no sense as to why they should not participate in the event in the first place.

One more thing that kept picking at my brain, was that of Bernie Ecclestone actually told the TV crews that not a single image of Force India was allowed to be filmed, then why wasn´t the sponsors reacting? Why didn´t we hear Vijay Mallya respond to this? Well, there might be a very simple explanation.

Bahraini law says that it is not allowed to show advertising for alcohol, and as we know the Force India cars have prominent ads from Whyte & Mackay, Kingfisher beer and Vladivar vodka on their side, all easy to spot. But looking at the others cars, and driver overalls, McLaren had no Johnny Walker ads on their cars, the embroidered patch on the overalls were covered, so now the rumour is, that Force India simply refused to remove the advertisements from the cars, causing Bernie Ecclestone, rightfully, to refuse TV exposure. Not only is it a bad idea to refuse this sort of thing, it is breaking the law.

These rumours are yet to be confirmed, and contacting the team is as useful as having building a sauna in the Gobi desert. However, I still maintain that Bernie Ecclestone would have known some part of this, and therefore his excuses, that he did not know why and no one wants to see some cars drive around in 10th anyway, are still rubbish.

Bernie: There´s no such thing as bad publicity

After a fantastic race at the Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain, in which Sebastian Vettel secured his first win of the season, Bernie Ecclestone has reiterated that the race will stay on the calendar indefinitely.

Bernie Ecclestone was upbeat and happy about the race, saying that there is a solid future for the race and that it´s good because people are talking about it. Last year´s race was cancelled after a bloody and violent crackdown from the government on protesters demanding democratic reforms in the country. And today the fact that the race was held, drew criticism and condemnation form many human rights organisations. As a build up for the race,a mass demonstration with thousands of protesters was held during the weekend, in which at least one protester was killed.

When asked if the events in Bahrain this year would have any impact on the future decision to host the race or the growth of motorsport in the region, Berie Ecclestone said:

“I think it’s good because people talk about things, you know. You know what they say – there is no such thing as bad publicity,” he said. “It’s growing all the time, and other places are interested. I think it will grow here for sure.”

Ecclestone also believes that the race will be on the calendar indefinitely.

“Absolutely. Forever. No problem.”

 

Follow the race on Twitter

I have previously been doing updates on my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/FormulaOneUpdate, but ever since Timeline was introduced some time ago, the updates I posted there clogged up everyone´s timelines as well.

So instead I have chosen to separate articles and race updates. Articles will continue to appear here, on Facebook and on Twitter, but the race updates will only be on Twitter from today and onwards. To follow me during the race, simply log on to Twitter and seach for @jakethedane.

https://twitter.com/#!/jakethedane

Have a good race.

Bahrain: Protester killed, thrown on ground

It has been confirmed that at least one protester lost his life, during Friday evening´s protests in Bahrain.

As you can read here, the police responded with stun grenades and teargas, as about hundred people left the main protest macrh, to head to the Pearl Roundabout in Central Manana.

One acitivist had been reported dead, and now it has been confirmed that Salah Habib has been “killed and thrown in farm only because he is one active political activist.“

According to The Telegraph, five protesters were arrested, and one of them, Salah Abbass Habib, was badly beaten. His body is the one mentioned.

Bahrain: Protesters dispersed with teargas and stun grenades – one reported dead

Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters too to the streets of Manana on Friday evening, demanding that the Grand Prix on Sunday is cancelled.

Clashes between security forces and protesters ramped up ahead of the first free practice session, and the situation remained tense all Friday long. Friday’s massive rally was organised by Shia political blocs, including the main groups al-Wefaq and al-Waad, and the demonstration was approved by the government. According to John Yates, the former assistant coomissioner for the Metropolitan Police, now hired by the Bahraini police to work on a police reform, said that the police were allowed to fire live rounds against the opposition.

“If the opposition started firing live ammunition, the police would respond with live,” said Yates.

About hundred protesters broke off the main demonstration, and that´s when the police fired tear gas and stun grenades against the group, who were headed to Pearl Square, the centre for the opposition last year.The roundabout is now heavily guarded by police.

Al Jazeera reports:

“The unrest has intensified in the lead-up to the race, including riot police clashing with opposition supporters in the predominantly Shia villages that ring Manama.

“Al-Wefaq leaders said at least 50 people have been injured in the past two days when security forces fired pellets to disperse protesters on several occasions.

“Additional security forces deployed this week, setting up checkpoints on Friday on roads leading to the Bahrain International Circuit, the location of the race, and increasing their presence across Manama.”

There are also reports that at least one person was killed during the clashes, this is yet to be confirmed.

Meanwhile, the daughter of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, the Bahraini-born Danish citizen on hungerstrike now for more than 70 days, have been arrested in Manana, as she tried to visit her father at the hospital. She was later released.

The situation for al-Khawaja is critical and according to his daughter, he has asked his lawyer to draft a last will.

“My father just called, he asked us to try and get his lawyer to visit him,in order to finalise a will,” said Zainab al-Khawaja. She also says that her father has stated, if he could turn back the time, he would do it all again. Through her daughter, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja said:

“If I die within the next 24 hours, I urge people to continue the peaceful resistance.”

The Danish ambassador in Bahrain, Christian Kønigsfeldt, has not been able to visit al-Khawaja, for over a week, a worrying development, says Ole Egberg Mikkelsen, the head of The Foreign Ministers Citizen Service in Denmark.

“It is true, that our ambassador hasn´t been able to access [al-Khawaja] for a week. And that of course is very worrying, that we no longer has the same access as before.”

Crown Prince dismiss cancellation of Bahrain race

The Crown Prince of Bahrain, Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Friday held a press conference at rhe Sakhir race track, saying that the race will not be cancelled, as this would be a victory for the protesters, which have been voicing their unhappiness about the race and their democratic demands, for some time now.

It looks like a Catch 22 situaion for the Bahraini organisers, which in large are members of the Royal family. If they cancel the race, the opposition wins a small victory. If they don´t, there are fears that protesters will ramp up their fight against the government. On Froday, the Crown Prince said:

“I think cancelling just empowers extremists,” said the Prince. “I think for those of us who are trying to navigate a way out of this political problem, having the race allows us to build bridges across communities, and get people working together.

“It allows us to celebrate our nation as an idea that is positive, not one that is divisive. So I actually think that having the race has prevented extremists from doing what they think they need to do out of the world’s attention.”

Both Force India and Sauber has experienced some close encounters with the protesters. Wednesday a car carrying Force India team members form the circuit, was attacked by a petrol bomb, although the attack was not directed at the car at all. And yesterday, Thursday evening, Sauber also experienced face-to-face encounters with protesters, but again the team was not the target.

“I absolutely can guarantee that any problems that may or may not happen are not directed at F1,” he said. “It goes to show that there are people who are out to cause chaos.

“You [in Britain] had these problems last year in your country and there is a very big different between protesting for political rights and rioting, and the attack that happened around Force India was aimed at the police. It was unprovoked, and it was quite dangerous. But at no time was anyone from F1 in danger.

“I hope by coming here you understand that unlike what has been reported we are not trying to say we are perfect,” he said. “We are a real country with real issues and we hope that you get a chance for all our complexities and all our shades, I genuinely believe that this race is a force for good.”

As much as seven individual protests, with the same aim, has been planned for 4 pm, and at this point there are no certain reports about those protests marches, nor if they have clashed with police. The Crwon Prince said that the protests are all part of a political process.

“I am very confident that protests which will happen at some point, and there is a demonstration today, is part of the political process in any country,” he said.

“So why should we be any different? Why should our openness relative to our neighbours be used against us? It is part of the political fabric of the country. The race is the race and we are here to celebrate that. I am here to go racing.”

Bahrain FP2: Rosberg makes good on promise

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, followed up on his win last weekend in China, by securing the fastest laptime in the second free practice session in Bahrain on Friday afternoon.

Once again a rather un-eventful and ordinary session, teams and drivers were concentrating on what they came to do and it also revealed that Red Bull could be on the verge of breaking the code to their under-performance in the first three races of the season.

As mentioned, Nico Rosberg set the fastest time, 1:32.816, followed by Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button, Kamui Kobyashi, Fernando Alonso, Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez finishing off the top ten. Webber finished 0.446 after Rosberg, while Vettel was 0.709 behind Rosberg.

Daniel Ricciardo 11th from Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen, Jean-Eric Vergne, Pastor Maldonado, Vitaly Petrov and Heikki Kovalainen, then Bruno Senna, Timo Glock, Charles Pic, Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan. You might have noticed that Force India´s drivers Paul Di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg did not set any times in FP2, that´s because the team decided to pull out entirely from the session, in order to drive back to the hotel in daylight, trying to avoid a repetition of the events on Wednesday evening.

And this is just in: The Crown Prince will make a statement outside Red Bull shortly. Stay tuned.