More civil unrest in Bahrain will intensify speculation the island Kingdom’s return to the F1 calendar early this year will be called off.<\/p>\n
Last year’s pre-season test and also the grand prix at the same Sakhir circuit were cancelled due to a political uprising, in which the government was later found to have used excessive force against its people.<\/p>\n
“We have been assured that this is not what’s happening,” said F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone to the Guardian newspaper last month.<\/p>\n
“What did the report say?\u00a0 Yes, there were instances or whatever, but … I wanted to go out there.\u00a0 I was happy to go.\u00a0 I’d like to go into the prison or the hospital or whatever and ask What actually happened?” he said.<\/p>\n
“I hope we go to Bahrain (in 2012) and there’s no trouble — the race goes on, the public are happy and there are no dramas.\u00a0 That’s what I hope,” added Ecclestone.<\/p>\n
Those hopes might now have been dented, amid reports a Bahraini woman was killed after inhaling tear gas fired during a “peaceful” demonstration this week near the capital Manama.<\/p>\n
It is the third fatality since late November last year, with one teenager reportedly dying after a tear gas canister hit him on the head in late December and another run over by a police vehicle a month earlier.<\/p>\n
Ecclestone was asked last month if he would consider calling off the 2012 race if there was real proof that Bahrain’s problems were persisting.<\/p>\n
“We’d have to give it some serious thought then.\u00a0 But we’ve been to Argentina when there’s been big dramas.\u00a0 There’s been dramas in Brazil.<\/p>\n
“I think you can look anywhere now and it’s not all good.”<\/p>\n
Ecclestone told Al Jazeera in December: “There obviously is a problem and I’m quite sure that eventually they’ll get to the bottom of it and sort it out.”<\/p>\n
The Bahrain grand prix is scheduled to be the fourth of 20 races in 2012.<\/p>\n
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