FOM chief Bernie Ecclestone says that he hopes that the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix will go ahead without any problems, saying that he had been assured that the political situation in the Gulf State had now been dealt with.
The 2011 Bahrain race was postponed and eventually cancelled after a surge of violent political protests erupted across the country.Government forces clashed with protests during the clashes, and while the situation has now calmed down, the Bahraini authorities have been accused of over-zealous responses to the protests.
Reports from the country have suggested a strict crackdown from the authorities, with some claiming that medical personnel found to have treated injured protesters had been jailed.
But Ecclestone has said that following an independent report into the Bahraini government's actions, he was satisfied that the situation was now being cleared up.
"We have been assured that this is not what's happening," he said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper when asked about the reports of medical staff being jailed.
"In fact they had a report made, allegedly independent. What did the report say? Yes, there were instances or whatever, but..."
Ecclestone added: "I wanted to go out there. I was happy to go. I'd like to go into the prison or the hospital or whatever and ask: 'What actually happened?'
"I have asked. They said, 'No problem.' The danger is you go out there and they pick you up in a limousine and take you to the best hotel and take you to dinner and then put you back on the aeroplane."
Formula One was heavily criticised during the Bahrain GP postponement, when the race was briefly re-scheduled for later in 2011, despite the issues over the government's actions.
The race was later dropped when the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain withdrew from the championship themselves.
But Ecclestone insisted that F1 did not have the right to be involving itself with the political issues of the country it visited during the season.
However, he did admit that in certain situations, the sport would have to act, citing F1's departure from South Africa during the years of sporting boycott of the country over apartheid.
"It's not easy. But wherever I go, the minute you get off the plane, the minute you go into somebody's country, you've got to respect exactly what their way of life is - their religion, their laws or whatever," he explained about F1.
"It's not correct to go moving into somebody's country and try to change them. Don't go. If you know something's wrong, stay away."
But he added: "We pulled out of South Africa years ago because of apartheid. I witnessed things that had happened there which upset me. I thought: 'That ain't the way to go on.'
"I hope we go to Bahrain and there's no trouble – the race goes on, the public are happy and there are no dramas. That's what I hope."
And asked in the interview whether direct evidence of wrongdoing by the Bahrain government would force him to change his mind over the race, Ecclestone suggested that it would depend on the evidence.
"We'd have to give it some serious thought then," he mused, "But we've been to Argentina when there's been big dramas. There's been dramas in Brazil. Bad things happen there.
"I think you can look anywhere now and it's not all good. You can't really hold England up as being all good, can you? There have been some terrible atrocities that we committed."
The 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix is scheduled for April 22nd next year, the fourth round of the world championship.
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