Unable to erase the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix from either history or the minds of the sleepers, organisers of the opening race for the 2011 Formula 1 season have decided to rub out the track extension. Well, sort off.
While the original the original Grand Prix layout may not have been hugely popular, it was certainly far better received than the awful addition for this season’s opener.
The extension had already been there and had partially been used by other forms of racing as the circuit extended beyond the Grand Prix perimeter.
However when Formula 1 cars attacked it, it only served to spread the cars out through its seemingly endless twists and turns.
Such backtracks are incredibly rare in motorsports and I honestly cannot remember when this last occurred at a level such as Formula 1 (although I’m pretty certain it happened at some stage in the 80’s).
Hopefully, the quality of racing will improve to help us celebrate this little change. Next year’s Bahrain Grand Prix will be the first of twenty races in 2011.
All I can say is they must be paying a fortune to be the first GP of the season. Given the choice of which race to drop, Borerain would be very high on my list.
I think the organisers can just about afford it (and could probably buy out every other race too if they wanted).
A shame really, because Melbourne has such wonderful anticipation about, while Bahrain has…. drab in droves.
I have been hoping this would happen and have suggested it on a few websites but I never for a second thought it would happen. Normally when someone in F1 does something monumentally stupid they refuse to go back and either bury their head in the sand or do something more stupid. This is a great decision even if it was bleedin’ obvious that they should not have run the revised layout in the first place.
I noticed that the organisers said that it was a special track for the 60th anniversary of the World Championship – I also notice how no one was saying it at the time…