After much confusion over their fate for this season, officials at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) have said that they are getting set for 2012 and are promising the event will be a bigger success than all previous races in Bahrain.
Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa, the Chief Executive of BIC, has insisted that because of this years race being cancelled, he is expecting more support than ever come 2012.
“We are even thinking of expanding and building more grandstands,” he told the Gulf Daily News.
Plans to secure acts and activities for the March 11th date are well under-way, and Shaikh Salman has said, “We have put a plan together to see what can come back, a lot of these acts had been booked so we are trying to see financially if there is a way of keeping them booked until March, if not we will look for something similar.”
The CEO went on to explain that it was an “internal battle” between the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone, with fuel from international media, that caused the revised October date for Bahrain’s 2011 race to be cancelled.
“We are looking forward to having a very successful race in 2012. It was very disappointing not to have it [in 2011] but I’m optimistic that for every delay we can do a better job next year.”
It is in Bahrain’s best interest to host an F1 race as it has been reported that the direct financial benefit to the country could be as much as $134.19m (£84million), with the indirect benefit from tourism expected to be as much as $500m (£312million).
