Bahrain paid 25m for cancelled race

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Bahrain paid for this year’s race that never happened.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

F1 to hit target after Bahrain pays 25m for cancelled race (The Independent)

“Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has revealed that the Bahrain government paid the hosting fee for its Grand Prix this year despite the race being cancelled due to unrest in the country. The annual fee is estimated at 25m and Mr Ecclestone said he expected that F1’s revenue and profit would not reverse this year now that the money had been paid.”

Force India star Adrian Sutil ‘isn’t talking to Williams’ over 2012 switch (Daily Mail)

Manfred Zimmerman (Sutil’s manager): “Our first choice for 2012 is Force India. At this time there is no action talking to other teams.”

Formula One’s vision for the future (The Times, subscription required)

“[Ron] Dennis endured being Formula One’s Aunt Sally for long enough, an easy target for his occasional pomposity and strangled management-speak. But Britain needs as many Ron Dennis-figures as it can find.”

Hill says F1 tracks need more support (Autosport)

“I think F1 would do itself a lot of good if it thought about how circuits survive, and how promoted events survive, in what is really an important place in the world for this sport.”

Heartbeat during F1 drive (YouTube)

Thanks to Francisco Bernardes for this link to a remarkable piece of footage I hadn’t seen before:

Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.

Comment of the day

Adrian J on McLaren’s growing influence in F1:

So, McLaren are currently, or will soon be, helping:

Force India
Virgin
Renault

Oh and every team has a McLaren ECU in there. At what point do we start calling this “The McLaren Era”?
Adrian J

From the forum

Albert C has a question about F1 feeder series.

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Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to AmericanTifosi, AUS_Steve, Calum, Deadman, GeeMac and Saints!

On this day in F1

The final victory for a TAG-Porsche engine came on this day in 1987.

Alain Prost won the Portuguese Grand Prix for Mclaren ahead of Gerhard Berger and Nelson Piquet.

The race was red-flagged and restarted following a crash on the first lap.

Race control was not as quick to react in those days as they are today – watch Berger take the lead from Nigel Mansell just before arriving on the scene of the crash:

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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77 comments on “Bahrain paid 25m for cancelled race”

  1. Oh look! Is it AUS_Steve, AKA ‘iamsa8’s birthday today?! Hmmmmm….

    I once met AUS_Steve,
    At the Aussie Grand Prix.
    I wore a bandana,
    So he knew it was me.

    iamsa8,
    What does that even mean?
    His hair is bright red,
    It’s not very green.

    A much better karter,
    Than I’ll ever be.
    He tears up the track,
    In his Formula Vee.

    In the Collantine Cup,
    He took victory at Spa.
    He should’ve won Canada,
    But the stewards said “nah.”

    He’s a talented actor,
    Likes treading the boards.
    He’s a hit on the stage,
    And a hit with the broads.

    So Happy Birthday Steve!
    Enjoy being an adult.
    Just don’t get too drunk,
    Erm, what rhymes with ‘adult’?

    1. Eee-pee-eye-see.

      Happy Birthday Steve! :)

    2. Love it!

      Happy birthday to Steve, GeeMac and everyone else! The 20th is certainly the best day of any month to be born ;)

      Hope you all have a good one!

      1. Happy bithrday everyone :)

    3. best. present. EVER!
      but seriously, it’s such an honour getting a Mag Poem written about me.. i can die happy!

      thanks for the birthday wishes! and happy birthday Geemac, Calum and everybody else!

      1. Hapopy Birthday Steve and GeeMac, and everyone else. It’s also my Mum’s birthday today, but she’s currently sunning herself in 30 degree Mediterranean sunshine.

    4. nice one mag!
      happy bday all

    5. I love it Geoff! :D

      A big happy 18th birthday to my good friend iamsa8! I really hope we manage another meetup at the 2012 Australian Grand Prix.

      Hope Calum, Deadman, GeeMac and Saints have great birthdays too. :)

      1. You forgot JPM! It’s his birthday too.
        I was gutted when he left Mclaren, it would have been brilliant to share my birthday with an F1 Champion (who knows?). :P

    6. LOL, really like that!

      And a happy birthday from me as well to iamsa8/AUS_Steve and to GeeMac on his way back from the Kilimanjaro to SA.
      And to Calum, Deadman and Saints, there’s enough of you to throw a good party, enjoy it!

      1. Ew, sorry missed AmericanTifosi in that, happy birthday to you as well!

      2. And its JP Montoya’s birthday as well today!

        1. Happy birthday to the following: AmericanTifosi, AUS_Steve, Calum, Deadman, GeeMac and Saints!

          Another great Mag poem!

          1. You listed them well: happy birthday all! And congratulations Magffrey for the wonderful composition!

    7. Fantastic, again!

      I especially liked “And a hit with the broads.”

      Happy birthday to all.

      1. I especially liked “And a hit with the broads.”

        It’s funny because it’s true. Just look at him in his Sauber shirt. Phwoar!

        1. I always thought he was the guy with the pic of Ned Flanders, in the Virgin Racing gear?

          Both outrageously good looking regardless, however ;)

          1. No that one is the author of the poem!

  2. At what point do we start calling this “The McLaren Era”?

    Maybe when they’ve won a WCC or two in this century. 8)

    1. 13 years and counting.

  3. More on topic, that heartbeat video is fascinating. I’ve not seen that one before.

    Also, seems unfair that the Bahrain Government don’t get to keep their hosting fee. Say what you like about them, if Bernie and the teams said ‘no, we’re not going there’, they should get their money back.

    1. I suspect Bernie said something to the tune of, “don’t pay and we won’t go next year either”…

      Well, that’s bribery corporate deals for you.

      (Does anyone actually believe Bernie offered for them to keep the money?)

      1. didn’t Bernie say somehting like “they wno’t be required to pay for a race they didn’t get” ?!

        1. I said we will give them the money back and they said don’t bother.”

          I suppose 25 million is pocket change for the bahraini royal family, and they probably realise that paying anyway would make Bernie a happy chap and would help their chances of next years race going ahead as planned. A gesture of good faith and what not

          That is if Bernie isn’t pulling wool over our eyes

        2. didn’t Bernie say somehting like “they wno’t be required to pay for a race they didn’t get” ?!

          That’s not my recollection but if anyone has a quote indicating otherwise do share it.

          1. He really did say that Keith:

            “The fee that is normally being paid for the event is not being paid,” Ecclestone told the Daily Telegraph. “I am not charging them for a race they are not getting. Whether they are covered by their insurers for loss of revenues, ticket sales, etc, I am not sure.

            From the Guardian on Februari 23rd

          2. Well then I guess we chalk this one up to another example of Ecclestone saying one thing and doing the other!

          3. This is where the rumour that Bahrain may get a WEC round in compensation for the lost F1 round starts making sense. If Bahrain got the WEC race and it went OK, then they’d end up being the one place in the Middle East with both the premier single-seater and sportscar series visiting each year. That would be worth more to them than the £25 m they’ve effectively “invested”.

      2. He probably did mention they could get it back (if they wanted to pull out of F1 for good)

    2. Say what you like about them, if Bernie and the teams said ‘no, we’re not going there’, they should get their money back.

      Wasn’t everyone saying it was so great that the Bahrain race was cancelled because of the human rights thing? I thought everyone would be happy with the propesct of them having twenty five million pounds less to kill their citizens with.

      No doubt Bernie will simply use the money from this year’s race to pay for next year’s, so Bahrain won’t be out of pocket.

      1. But it would be even better if that money would go towards the people that have been tortured and/or thrown out of job because of prejudice.

      2. I’d be happier with the prospect of F1 complying with its contracts, in which case Bahrain’s current regime wouldn’t be getting any more publicity from F1 due to not having a race with which to generate any.

  4. £25 million to not have a race, sometimes i think F1 should have an eye patch in it’s logo somewhere :D

    1. cotd… surely….

      1. Defo, that’s a great comment.

    2. Well, there’s no Grand Prix in my garden this year. Does that mean i’ll get landed with a £25mil bill?! D:

    3. Bernie should probably have an eye-patch for how he operates, but in this specific example, of course Bahrain should pay its hosting fees. Why should F1 take a financial hit because Bahrain couldn’t host the event? It wasn’t like it was due to some natural disaster or some other act of God/nature out of their control.

      Not only that, I didn’t see Bahrain telling F1, “hey, go to another venue this year in our place.”

      I’m sure F1 lost out on much more potential revenue by not being able to hold an F1 race than they are getting back from the 25M. But that aside, it’s a common business practice where depending on when you cancel something you’ve reserved, you may get a full or partial refund, and sometimes no refund at all.

      A weak example, let’s say you’re having a wedding and you book a popular singer to perform. She schedules the date and turns down other bookings because of that. Then on the day of the wedding, the happy couple has a spat and call the wedding off. Should they be able to tell the singer, “hey, since you don’t need to sing, we don’t need to pay you?” Not to mention all the other vendors who gave up other paying business for this wedding.

      I guess we could say, “ah, but the lovers had a spat and it’s so sad they won’t get married, and that’s more important than money.” And I would say, “sure, they shouldn’t get married just so the money they owe gets wasted. But since it’s only money, they shouldn’t mind paying it to the people they owe.”

      The 25M wasn’t “not to have a race”, it was because they wanted the race (a rare commodity). It’s their fault that killing their own people made having the race unsafe and unacceptable. There are enough real examples of how bad and greedy F1 can be, we don’t have to make ones up. Taking F1 to task for getting paid by Bahrain is making one up.

      1. Because it was force majeure. If it wasn’t force majuere, technically Bahrain should have been struck off the FIA international calendars for the next 12 months at least. Either the cancellation was force majuere (in which case they shouldn’t have had to pay) or it wasn’t (in which case there shouldn’t be any international FIA races of any description until the 12 months is over, and someone should have said so – the 12 months doesn’t start until the race is deemed to have not been cancelled for force majuere reasons).

      2. What makes it an interesting story is the fact it was supposed to have been force majeur that cancelled it. And even Bernie confirmed they should not be paying for that earlier in the year.

        Guess that’s now changed, eh. No big supprise, but notable how its changed.

    4. £25 million… is that the cost to watch F1 on Sky next year?

  5. The Heartbeat video is him breathing surely? unless his heart stops through every corner.

    1. Still pretty damn cool!

    2. While the louder sound is him breathing, I believe the heartbeat is the much deeper sound, and it gets really, really fast during cornering, when he stops breathing. Fascinating.

    3. pretty sure it’s his breath, but it’s still damn cool!

      1. I think we hear both in the video, but even if not its a really nice vid.

    4. I have a subwoofer and the beat is reasonably clear. In the corners it speeds up rapidly, maybe as a result of the increased demand due to g loading.

  6. That heartbeat footage is truly some of the best F1 footage I’ve ever seen and if it really is the Mclaren era I find it strange how they have only one title in 11 years!

  7. £25m? For one race?

    No wonder so many races can’t afford to go on with prices like that. I don’t give a damn how good F1 is or how much prize money the teams want or how hungry Bernie is for money, £25m a year is absolutely disgusting.

    F1 has always been a world away from normality but as people seem to sacrifice more in day-to-day life in the toughest economic times in our generation, F1 wants more and more.

    Greed leads to resentment, it’s about time Bernie learnt that.

    Greedy little grey sod.

    1. It’s always been that way, since Ecclestone really got involved.

      Don’t bite the hand that feeds!

      1. Seven years ago it was more like £15-£20m than £25m. In a time of low inflation, F1’s “Bernie fees” have skyrocketed and now everyone is paying the price (literally and metaphorically).

        1. If the circuits are willing to pay…

          They aren’t charities, no one is being robbed. It’s entirely a business decision.

  8. From what I hear in the heartbeat video, if I drove a Formula One car, I would stop at the first corner. And that’s because I can’t hold my breath.

    1. Sure – if you started now. But all Formula 1 drivers go through a strict training regimen, and cardiovascular exercises form a large part of that.

      Hey, Keith, there’s an idea for an article – something about the diet and the training routine of drivers. If it hasn’t been done already.

      1. It already has, it was done earlier this year and it went into great detail about that and other stuff.

    2. Do they hold their breath for Turn 8 at Istanbul? It’s a long corner, you know :P

    3. if you cant hold your breath for 3 seconds than you need to see a doctor. thats not normal.

      1. Probably a bit different at 150-200mph, pulling between 3-5g and sweating like it’s going out of fashion.

  9. On This Day……
    …..Won the race ahead of berger berger….. lol.

    Typo?

    1. Fixed it, thanks.

  10. Oh dear we have so many birthday parties today not sure which one to attend.So Happy Birthday to AmericanTifosi, AUS_Steve, Calum, Deadman, GeeMac and Saints!

    1. Yes, Happy Birthday all!!!!

      1. This must be a record!

        1. I think so.

    2. Mass party!

      Happy birthday to AmericanTifosi, AUS_Steve, Calum, Deadman, GeeMac and Saints, and hope you all have a great year.

  11. Curious that they stopped the 1987 Portuguese GP with black flags.

    1. good spot. maybe everyone got disqualified! lol

    2. That’s what they used to do in the old days. The red flag was only shown at the S/F line. Weird.

      1. it’s still weird and stupid – start line, finish line, red flag line and 2 sc lines. maybe more.

        1. oh yeah, at least 1 each of drs detection and activation lines

  12. Heartbeat video is just amazing. What a noise.

  13. Funny how the silly season is really on, with a bit of rumour around what Renault will do, if Williams is really courting Kimi for something or Sutil for a race drive.
    We had Alguersuari telling us how neither he nor Buemi would be allowed to be as far behind their team mates as Webber is and keep their seats, Schumacher telling us he is not decided on 2013 yet, Ferrari sounding the press how Button might want to go to them in 2013, and now Sutils manager telling us they are not talking to Williams in earnest, or rather making the point that Sutil is to be regarded a “Pay driver”.
    Oh and Comeback Nick telling us how he is serious about being on the grid next year, again.

  14. Inspired by the tips about Singapore I have a suggestion for an article as well: How about a feature about the sound of F1 on TV?

    – Is there a set of two microphones at every camera (you hear the sound from left to right if you see a car driving from left to right)?
    – Are the sounds we hear always from the same point as the camera?
    – What kind of processing takes place? (Like how much compression do they use?)
    – Why isn’t the sound more of an in between, between what we currently hear and the totally distorted ‘private recordings’ we hear on you tube? I mean, for me it may be it more aggressive on TV.

    etc etc

  15. Bernie give money back to anyone??? What are we smoking here people!

    More likely the Bahraini’s demanded a refund and Bernie stiffed them; their statement is a way of saving face and possibly their race next year.

  16. Bernie is not pocketing this money, he works for CVC and a big chunk of this goes to the teams for there position in the constructors championship.

    What happens next year if they miss their race again? Which is a possibility…

  17. I really didnt like your point of view here… Do you mind elaborating a littl.

Comments are closed.