The 2011 season opener in Bahrain has been called off.<\/p>\n
The news, late on Monday, followed hot on the heels of reports that the final pre-season test at the same Sakhir venue will also not take place, due to the civil unrest in the island Kingdom.<\/p>\n
But while the ink was still dry on the cancellation statements, F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone was stressing the possibility of a rescheduled Bahrain grand prix later in 2011.<\/p>\n
“Obviously it would depend on the political situation there, so we would not plan anything in the next few months,” he told the Daily Express.<\/p>\n
It had been rumoured that the 80-year-old Briton might reshuffle the end of the calendar to make room for a new Bahrain date.<\/p>\n
Ecclestone also said: “There is a three-week gap in August for the F1 shutdown but the temperatures then would be a bit extreme.\u00a0 Maybe later around the Indian grand prix could be possible if things are ok there (in Bahrain).”<\/p>\n
The other knock-on effect of Monday’s news is that teams have decided to reconvene at the Circuit de Catalunya for their final four-day test of the winter from March 8.<\/p>\n
And the 2011 season will get started two weeks later in Australia.<\/p>\n
The wording of the official announcement made clear that it was the Bahrain royal family’s decision to postpone the event, which was important ostensibly for insurance, legal and commercial reasons.<\/p>\n
“Our nation’s priority is on overcoming tragedy, healing divisions and rediscovering the fabric that draws this country together,” said the Crown Prince.<\/p>\n
He stressed that Ecclestone had reassured Bahrain “that a decision on the race was entirely Bahrain’s to make”.<\/p>\n
“We felt it was important for the country to focus on immediate issues of national interest and leave the hosting of (the race) to a later date,” added the prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa.<\/p>\n
The governing FIA said it “supports the decision”, and Red Bull driver added: “Hopefully Bahrain can stage the race again”.<\/p>\n
The 2011 season opener in Bahrain has been called off. The news, late on Monday, followed hot on the heels of reports that the final pre-season test at the same Sakhir venue will also not take place, due to the civil unrest in the island Kingdom. But while the ink was still dry on the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[2120,3],"tags":[879,59,5262,5300,5340,2852],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11186,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11185\/revisions\/11186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"