Formula One Supreme Leader Bernie Ecclestone has dismissed the growing concerns over this week’s Bahrain Grand Prix after pro- democracy protests threatened to overshadow the event for the third year running.
The race was cancelled last two years, due to an uprising but went ahead last year despite series of demonstrations.
“Yes. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be (a success,)” Ecclestone told AFP at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.
It took the intervention of the police to disperse demonstrators last week; the policemen fired tear- gas and sound bombs at the demonstrators.
On Sunday, authorities in the Gulf kingdom promised “appropriate security measure” for the race. “The security situation in Bahrain is very reassuring,” a government spokeswoman said.
“(Bahrain) will ensure that appropriate security measures are taken during the F1 Race and will take enough measures as in all other countries which host such international sporting events,” Eccleston told the state news agency BNA.
Unlike last year when Bahrain was the hot topic at the Chinese Grand Prix, the topic was hardly mentioned last week. And Eccleston was quick to react to that saying he wasn’t even aware of any current protest.
“What’s happened? They’re demonstration now? I didn’t know that,” he said. “There’s nobody demonstration.”
The 82- year- old was indifferent to a report from Human Right Watch that police in the Gulf state have been rounding up pro- democracy activist in the run- up to the grand prix.
“NO they have their own politics and they are discussing this, I believe,” he said.
Sunni- ruled Bahrain was rocked by month- long pro- democracy protest led by the kingdom’s Shiite majority in early 2011 that were crushed with the help of Saudi- led troops.
The 2011 edition of the same event was at first postponed then later cancelled, last year race was accompanied by a week of Shiite- led protests. Though the demonstrators stayed away from the desert circuit and the race passed off without incident.
Human rights group say a total of 80 people have been killed since February 2011.
