Bahrain F1 Grand Prix open only to participants

Given the continued spread of the COVID-19 globally, the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) has announced the decision to hold this year's Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix as a participants-only event.

According to a statement released by the BIC, convening a major sporting event, which is open to the public and allows thousands of international travellers and local fans to interact in close proximity "would not be the right thing to do at the present time".

Bahrain’s own early actions to prevent, identify and isolate cases of individuals with Covid-19 has been extremely successful to date. The approach has involved rapid, proactive measures, identifying those affected by the virus, of which the overwhelming majority of cases relate to those travelling into the country by air. Aggressive social distancing measures have further increased the effectiveness of preventing the virus’ spread, something that would clearly be near impossible to maintain were the race to have proceeded as originally planned, it said.

"As an F1 host nation, balancing the welfare of supporters and racegoers is a tremendous responsibility," it said.

But to ensure that neither the sport, nor its global supporter base, is unduly impacted, the race weekend will still go ahead as a televised event.

"We know how disappointed many will be by this news, especially for those planning to travel to the event, which has become a cornerstone event of the international F1 calendar, but safety has to remain our utmost priority," BIC said. - TradeArabia News Service