The Formula 1 Boss Bernie Ecclestone explained in an interview with the “Salzburger Nachrichten” that he sees no major problems concerning the Bahrain Grand Prix. Concerning Spain, Ecclestone has some comments.
On the 22nd of April, the fourth championship race of the 2012 Formula 1 season takes place in the island state of Bahrain. There have been heated debates and even calls for a boycott by the drivers and teams by the human rights organisation “Bahrain Center for Human Rights”. Ecclestone, on the other hand, sees no major obstacles to the race.
“Everyone is worried about this part of the world” says Ecclestone to the “Salzburger Nachrichten”. “But in this region Bahrain is the country that should have the least problems”. Ecclestone sees rather different problems where the commercial side of things are concerned. ” I have been trying for a long time to have alternating races in Valencia and Barcelona. But the Spaniards don’t want to discuss it. We should not have two races there”, says Ecclestone.
Thus it seems that after the announcement of the two racing events, a Grand Prix is not certain given the current financial crisis. Nevertheless, even if one race were cancelled, there would still be twenty races in the season. “As of today, we could have five new operators. There is high demand. Mexico has shown interest. More races of course mean more money, from us and the teams, since the staff would probably have to be doubled. But there is always a solution.”
Yet even Ecclestone believes that there could be problems if the current global economic crisis doesn’t show improvement. “Due to the length of our contracts, we are almost immune. But if the situation does not change globally, we must prepare ourselves for problems,” says Ecclestone.
