Is the Fever catching on in Bahrain?

The day started well enough, except for the start at 6am and on the road at 7am. A bit too early for me, but the reward was great, I got to go to the Bahrain International Circuit – the arena for the Gulf Air F1 Grand Prix race, the inauguration set for 04.04.04 – my daughter Hanan’s birthday no less!

The purpose of the visit is to do a site survey in order to agree where we’re laying fibre cable and various equipment the contract for which we have won recently. The order was on Feb 8th, and the hand over is scheduled for March 15th, and when you consider that the equipment and cables that we have to supply weighs approximately 15 tons (15,000 kgs!) of essentially electronic equipment, you get the picture and you can probably imagine the pressure I am under. Add to the pressure that the penalty clause stipulates a penalty of 2% of the contract value for every day delay after the March 15th deadline and you really get the picture!

I’ve written a bit this morning about my initial experience and awe of such a project not only virtually completed in a matter of months, but the knowledge that the F1 race is actually going to happen in Bahrain in a matter of days, and the experience we’ve had this afternoon seeing and hearing an F1 car shooting down the King Faisal Highway has most certainly cemented the awe I felt earlier in the morning and exponentially increased my enthusiasm for being at the race track and multiplying that “music” by a factor of 20!

The “F1 Fever” event started well enough, I got the kids to the office at about 12 noon, fed and watered them then down we went to cross the street to enjoy “the fever”. It was however immediately apparent that the crowd is going to be uncontrollable.

At that time I estimate hundreds of enthusiasts and curious folk (the majority of which I think were just curious) lining the street, in half an hour the crowd increased to several thousand. I was amazed that there are that many young people in Bahrain actually interested enough in the sport. After all, I would hazard a guess that most have never seen an F1 race on TV let alone live.

As our office building is situated at the middle of the segment of King Faisal Highway which was chosen as a venue for this event, I called our landlords yesterday to find our if they would allow us to go to the roof to watch the event. They categorically said no! Damn, that was most probably the best spot to see it. Imagine my surprise then when we walked all the way directly opposite the building to find people on the roof! Double damn! After taking a vote (basically my son Arif and I) decided to hike back and join them. We covered the distance in about 9 minutes, which originally took us about 15 to get to where we were.

After finding suitable positions along the wall, Arif got my video camera and crouched down to shoot the event through a decorative hole in the wall, I started taking some pictures of the “arena” and the people.

The crowd on the street were getting restless, and everyone started pushing forward to try to catch a glimpse of the action which hasn’t started yet. They were still behind the barricades then, but the police were clearly getting frustrated, or just didn’t care enough to immediately put a stop to the shoving and pushing.

The first event started with Harley Davidson bikers! Fantastic noise, fantastic spectacle and us on the roof thoroughly enjoyed seeing those “fat boys” ride. You can feel the atmosphere on the roof. Electric.

It was too electric down on the street however. People were not satisfied with craning or peeping through the ranks. Oh no. They just had to be at the very front of the line. It didn’t take long for the barricades to break, the police and marshals were completely overwhelmed as the crowd sizing the situation, took heart and started getting on the street! Some even got even braver and crossed the street in their dozens to get to the other side!

Now help me here please. How much brain power or IQ does it take to understand that a 600 kilogram car, powered by a shitload of horses capable of speeds of over 300 kilometers per hour in a matter of seconds is dangerous to your wellbeing? Wouldn’t people with an IQ number a normal person would trip on understand to stay well away from such a beast?

Red flags all over, and the activity stopped until the police and marshals restored a semblance of order. But the people were still in front of the barricades and you can see that they were waiting for the policeman to turn his back and they would immediately creep forward.

Following the Harleys, the Minis took the stage with two cars speeding and weaving. Wonderful sight and nicely executed. The crowd got closer to the edge of the street.

The Minis parade over, we then were treated to 3 very fast, and thoroughly enjoyable twin-engined karts! Those babies apparently can do 190 km/h easily, and I believe it as they probably were well over 100 km/h going up and down the street.

The organisers of the event have thought this through I saw. Every event so far had the vehicles going up and down the street at least for 3 laps. Thus ensuring that everyone would get to see, hear and enjoy the spectacle.

The crowd is almost under control in most parts of the road-circuit now, however, the end-zone, the place where cars have to break to do a U-turn to come back was completely mobbed with people, not behind the barrier of course, but there they were on the curbstones, behind the end wall and around the other side as well. It only takes a single mistake and we will have some serious deaths on our hands. That part of the road-circuit was poorly managed.

So what do you do when you have a problem like this? Try to get some order, so the riot police were brought in. Although unarmed, without batons, guns or shields, about 20 or so of them just marched from where they were stationed to the end of the road-circuit. Calm was semi-restored again. There is nothing that scares the shit out of a Bahraini crowd than riot police. Unfortunate, but true.

Radio and TV were there of course. I think they hired a delicious lady from the Lebanese Future Television to be the host for the day so she had the mic. Other the the usual dirge that DJs and VJs are famous for, she was lambasting the crowd to move back behind the barricades. Mostly in English! Lady, if you’d told them that more in Arabic than English they might have understood, but no one was taking notice of her. She was very annoyed and frustrated at the end. She was however quite genuine in her horror at people continuing to cross the street, pushing forward in front of the barricades and jostling for position. She tried poor thing, but as we say in Arabic “there is no life in the person you’re calling!”

She was promising the people that as soon as order was restored, the two F1 Safety Cars will race around the road-circuit, almost cajoling, entreating and encouraging them to keep behind the barricades. Once the flags were green, we were extremely surprised to see Mr. Neel Jani making his debut in Bahrain, becoming the first ever driver to drive an F1 car on any street in the whole Middle East!

Yay, the F1 car was OUT. The Sauber Petronas C22 thrilled me and the crowd with that MUSIC! He did 3 laps gradually increasing speed on every lap, yet he would not dare go too fast due to people now really pushing forward! He pitted after the 3rd lap.

If the organising committee decided to ruse the crowd by promising the safety cars and bringing out the F1 car instead, if this was planned, then it certainly has worked – at least initially and I take my hat off to them. Brilliant tactic.

Now the crowd were getting to the unmanageable stage. There is no way that Neel Jani can safely get up to speed if he has to slow down right in the middle of his run. The crowd there, which are directly underneath us, were getting closer and closer to the street, forget something called barricades now, it is as if they did not exist at all. This has the potential to get really ugly, and all of us watching had our hearts in our hands. There is no doubt that because of the crowd situation our enjoyment of the event was greatly reduced.

Time for more sedate driving now, as a collection of the most wonderfully maintained and restored “old ladies” took their laps, driven by the victorious Bahrain National Football team. I don’t know what the cars’ makes were and I intend to find out just for a matter of interest, but that was the only time I heard some sort of animation from the crowd. The majority were heartily cheering the football team, which is their due of course, but I felt that they, the crowd, didn’t give a hoot about the cars! When the F1 car was speeding down the “track”, all I could think of seeing the people’s reaction was “huh? Whassat? So what’s the big deal? Small car with big noise!” No clapping, no cheering, nothing. Just simple curiosity, and different kind of afternoon out. The Bahraini’s heart is in football, not so much in motorsports.

Not to this Bahraini of course! To me, it was another dream come true, a religious experience, and for that I heartily thank the organisers for even thinking of mounting an event like this.

The old ladies left the arena to be followed now by yet another passion of mine: Porsche! And get this guys (and gals), the most luscious red 356 was with them! Smack right in the middle of the procession being “protected” and venerated by 911 turbos, 911s, and Boxters. I would have loved to have seen some 924s and 928s in there as well as the early ’90s and late 80s 911s like my beloved 911-968. There might have been, but my eyes and heart were on that delicious, lovely, stately red 356. I shall get one of those, and as soon as possible. My personal favourite of course is the 1962 model, the 356B. Man you should have watched me drool. My hand was not stable enough to get a good, clear video shot of that lady and I wouldn’t zoom on her because I couldn’t trust myself enough not to lose the shot. Whoever has her, I salute you for your taste Sir. You are a true gentleman.

Hot-Rod time. Two of ’em, one “original” and the other made in Bahrain no less, a white one and obviously a kit car. It looked like a Caterham but I’m not a hot-rod fanatic so I can’t tell the difference here. It was unfortunate that the two show cars weren’t matched as to the number of occupants so that they would drive at the same or similar speeds, the “Bahraini” car had two somewhat opulent occupants, while the other had just one. So I wasn’t really impressed by this particular display.

Next came Mr. Mohammed Sulayyim, arguably the best rally driver in the Middle East in his custom made GT. He was fast. Very fast and very loud. He skidded and slid (controlled) at the end-zone and I was genuinely afraid that he’s going to lose control and plow into the end-zone spectators (who should have never been allowed to gather there anyway) but the noise and the back-firing was thrilling. He had to have the last word however hadn’t he? When he finished his laps, he did some doughnuts on the road at the far end of the track and the crowd simply surged, they didn’t want to miss that, no way in hell they would.

THAT was the end of the afternoon. There is no way that the police, riot police, marshals or the annoying screeches of the Lebanese chick would get them back to the curb. F o r g e t it!

I was so absolutely mortified and disgusted by the behavior of my own countrymen and women that I couldn’t bear staying and hoping that the ultimate event of the afternoon to be conducted. There is no way that Neel Jani would even dare drive his F1 C22 car down through that uncontrolled and unpredictable crowd.

It was just useless, absolutely useless and disheartening. I just went back to the office after that. I am not sure at the moment if they did get the crowd under control, or if the C22 took another final lap on the streets of Bahrain, I just couldn’t stand it.

So thank you to all who have attended this afternoon and showing an interest, you could have made the event much more enjoyable if you were just a little bit more considerate of people around you. You have successfully shamed Bahrain. I now thank the BIC formally for keeping the ticket prices high, because the crowd who were there this afternoon most certainly should not be allowed to attend the proper F1 race. If they do, then they will repeat the same experience, but then we will have some 2 billion people from around the world to hide our shamed face from.