An impeccable source has told me that the Bahrain GP has been postponed – rather than cancelled.
Incredibly, because of the commercial implications Bernie Ecclestone is going to try to squeeze it into the schedule at the end of the year.
The only realistic option is on November 20, after Abu Dhabi – which means either there will be a bizarre triple header with Brazil, or Ecclestone will have to move Interlagos back to December 4. Bahrain cannot run in the gap between India and Abu Dhabi because new races have to be stand alone in their first year, because of question marks over how long it takes freight to get in and out.
One compromise could be that Bernie moves Brazil anyway to create breathing space, and if Bahrain is still not viable for November 2o, the season will just end a week later than planned.
Of course there’s an outside chance that Bernie will claim back the Indian GP date of October 30 – and give the organisers an extra year to get ready…
Teams are discussing the implications in a conference call this afternoon.
More later…
Adam Cooper F1 
Well, if sanity couldn’t prevail, at least utter, irredeemable lunacy didn’t either….
If we have a season as close as this year’s, won’t there be pressure to confirm where and when the season ends? Hardly seems fair to drivers, teams, fans to have this doubt hanging over the season’s end.
Maybe it’s postponed till next year (… and they could extend the contract by a year). It saves face for many to say it is postponed rather than cancelled.
definitely face saving with the word ‘postponed’
I take it they’re attempting to kill everyone involved with exhaustion?
A very good point, one that some fans don’t seem to understand. Why they want 52 GPs a year escapes me…
I suppose it’s been a while since there was a December race. We must not forget there’s probably winter testing pencilled in too.
My God, don’t! At 20 races, it’s still a bit difficult to justify taking that much time off of ‘family duties’ just to watch the telly.
In 2 weeks the situation will have returned to `normal`again in Bahrain
and the Grand Prix will have been cancelled for nothing.
The situation is entirely in the hands of the Crown Prince, the government and the protesters. It can be violent, it can take long, or it can be solved in no time.
Postponed? Yes, by 12 months!
I’ll be gutted if India is put back a year, really looking forward to this new venue. Better just to drop this race.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Bahrain became the final race of the season. If you were the Bahraini organisers, this is the best option for them to still give the race the most interest and publicity.
I really hope it doesn’t happen though, because starting and ending in Australia and Brazil respectively would be great.
BBC has it as breaking news now. Both Bahrain test and GP called off.
Surely this will now simply dominate the championship run-in with a whole will-it-happen-or-won’t-it-happen scenario – it can’t be the season finale as a cancellation would make the sport look even more stupid but come November and protesters’ aims have not been achieved then this simply creates another potential flash point later in the year.
In the Crown Prince’s interview on CNN there was mention of a process of political reform being initiated 10 years ago to limited effect; the postponement seems to assume that serious ongoing political, economic and social grievances will now be addressed in the space of a few months.
What I can’t quite work out is who is really calling the shots on this and who stands to lose most in the event of a cancellation rather than a postponement.
Just cancel it now, save any confusion come October,November when drivers and teams are looking at tying up Championships.
Then we won’t have any political wrangling from teams.
Exactly, that’s why I’ve been saying all week it can’t be rescheduled. Only thing is it’s hard $$$ to teams and they may put up with the inconvenience…
Rule of Thumb – stick to racing where you can spray Champagne on the podium, my heart goes out to the besieged wealth hoarders. Thanks Hosni
Postponed? Yeah… right. Translaton: “we’ll press on with the rest of the season, lick our fingers, stick them in the air and see which way the wind is blowing, and THEN cancel the Bahrain GP do to lack of interest.”
ok let them postpone anything they want