Bahrain

I have just been watching he Bahrain Grand Prix, or at any rate the highlights of it.   This is not the time or place for me to rant against sky sports rapacious absorption of so many major sporting events, no I just want to make a few personal observations on the event.

First I am an F1 fan, my regular readers will know of my enthusiasm, I enjoy all motor sport and F1 is the pinnacle, it is high powered, high speed, international elite sport.   It is a sport watched by millions all over the world, and I can't help thinking that it's presence in a country sends a message.   On that basis I do not think that the Bahrain GP should have gone ahead, however o that basis maybe neither should the Chinese or maybe quite a few others over the years.   So I don't think the race should have gone ahead, but I watched it anyway, and in many ways enjoyed the race.

We are having quite a season with four different teams, and drivers winning the four different races so far, and I think we have now had four different leaders of the Championship.   This week Red Bull have passed McLaren in the constructors championship as McLaren had a dreadful race.   I really feel for Jenson Button whose luck at the moment is terrible, indeed if he didn't have bad luck he would have no luck at all.   I just hope that he has now got rid of all the bad luck in one single race and will be back to winning ways in Spain next time out.

Jenson Button racing in front of the empty stands

Anyway getting back to the point I couldn't help but notice that Force India cars had minimum TV time, I didn't see either car in qualifying and they only showed them in the race when it couldn't really be avoided.   This seems like a very petty form of revenge from the Bahrain producers, after Force India were the only team to publicly offer any criticism of F1s presence there.   I also couldn't help but notice that the TV audience did not see anything of the empty stands, but it seems to me that it will be difficult for the organisers to claim that this event had any sort of popular support on the island.