Former FIA president Max Mosley believes that it would be a disaster for Formula One's standing were it to allow the return of the Bahrain Grand Prix, adding that if he were still in charge it would only return "over my dead body".
The future of the 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix will be decided at today's World Motor Sport Council meeting in Barcelona, with the race potentially set to slot back into the calendar later in the season.
But with numerous questions being asked about the Bahrain authorities and their handling of the political protests that caused the postponement of the race, particularly by human rights groups, Mosley believes that it would be wrong to reschedule the event.
He told the ESPN F1 website that to allow Bahrain back onto the calendar would be to paint F1 as "an instrument of repression".
"If I was president today, F1 would go to Bahrain over my dead body," Mosley, who stood down as FIA president in October 2009, bellowed.
"It cannot happen. The grand prix will be used to paint a picture of Bahrain that will be false. They will be attempting to use the grand prix to support what they are doing, almost using F1 as an instrument of repression."
He added: "There is only one reason F1 is in Bahrain, and that is a political reason. To go will be a public relations disaster, and sponsors will want their liveries removed."
Meanwhile Bernie Ecclestone, who is keen to see the Bahrain race return, has insisted that the final decision will not be motivated by money concerns.
"[It is] nothing to do with money at all. Nothing, in any shape or form," he told the Reuters news agency on Friday morning ahead of the meeting.
"This has to do with whether people... I don't know, to be honest, with this occasion whether people are concerned with their safety if they go or whether people are concerned with what has happened in the past."
He added: "What has happened in that whole area, in all those countries, is not good in any way, so we will have to wait and see."
The sport is expected to make a financial loss of some $40 million if the race is cancelled altogether.
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