Paris: It is now apparent that this weekend's Bahrain GP is not about Formula One anymore. The ever intensifying protests against the government have completely overshadowed the race. Among the teams, Force India literally felt the impact of the strife after a firebomb exploded near the vehicle that was carrying its team members. Two of the members even left Bahrain following this incident. The impact was felt during the practice sessions on Friday when the team skipped the second practice.
Speaking about this decision, Force India team principal, Robert Fernley, said that an unfortunate incident had taken place on Wednesday. "It destabilised the emotional element of our team. On Thursday, we put a programme together which addressed all the issues from the team; we sat down with them all and that meant a slight restructuring of the programme in [an] order that we could make sure that there was comfort within the team and that we delivered a very strong qualifying and race programme.''
He added that the programme was strutured so as to make sure that the team members gelled together properly. He added that it wasn't that the team was making a statement on the event.
"It’s an internal matter that just needs stability. We provided that stability and we've stuck with the programme that we've had to put in place. We've done it with pleasure and we've supported our team in that process," he said.
Fernley also said that despite some opposition to the race, there were a huge amount of people who are for the race to take place. "We are totally committed to this Grand Prix and to bringing this programme to reality for Bahrain. Hopefully, it will form part of the healing process, and if we're part of that, we should be proud, not looking at ourselves and being negative," he said.
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