F1 has strange bedfellows

Bahrain was not too bad before civil strife hit the desert island, but China ranks amongst the least popular events visited because of challenges posed by the regime.

At the back end of the calendar F1 tsar Bernie Ecclestone has paired Korea and Japan, India and Abu Dhabi and Texas/Brazil. One could not find weirder pairings.

Korea and India vie with China in the non-popularity stakes, while Brazil’s crime rate is a problem. On the flip side Japan, Abu Dhabi and Texas are extremely hospitable places, but never was the difference between two venues starker than the most recent visits to India and Abu Dhabi.

About the only common factor is that Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing dominated both races on tracks designed by the same architect. But their overall characters could not be more marked, with even the construction standards being chalk and cheese – despite the pencil wielded by Ecclestone’s favourite circuit designer Herman Tilke.

Where the former throws every bureaucratic hurdle into the path of Formula 1, even taxing teams and drivers on their earnings in the world’s largest democracy, the Gulf emirate is hospitality personified with nothing being too much effort.

For example, when Pirelli suggested desert sand blown onto the circuit overnight could cause undue tyre graining, the circuit immediately brought in a large vacuum cleaner that is part of the equipment used on airport runways.

When media representatives suggested the media visa procedure was too expensive relative to other countries, charges were trimmed.

By contrast, the Indian visa procedure is the most frustrating on the trail. On average four visits to official offices and almost three weeks to obtain visas.

Possibly the biggest difference is that despite the International Olympic Committee recognising FIA activities as ‘sport’, the Indian government categorises F1 as ‘entertainment’ and taxes teams and drivers on that basis.

After just three events the Indian Grand Prix seems a goner and is unlikely to be missed.

Haze and pollution in the region is such that eyes smart non-stop, and the Saturday morning free practice was shortened by 30 minutes – because of lack of visibility caused by smog!

Abu Dhabi was a spectacular success for world champion Sebastian Vettel. The young German won by over 30 seconds from Australian team-mate Mark Webber to stake his claim as the best driver of the current crop.

Fernando Alonso drove a typically relentless race, but even the Ferrari driver would find it hard to argue that the mantle has passed on to Vettel, who seems destined to destroy every Schumacher record.

Vettel equalled Schumacher’s record of seven wins in a row on Sunday – and on current form he is likely to make it nine by the time the series reaches Brazil via the race in Texas.