• Bahrain Grand Prix

F1 should analyse Bahrain decision after race - Brawn

Ross Brawn: "After the race with proper judgement of what happened and what we saw, we need to come to a conclusion" © Sutton Images

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• Drivers:
• Ross Brawn
• |
• Jean Todt

• Teams:
• Mercedes

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn believes Formula One should take time to discuss its decision to race in Bahrain once the weekend is over.

The decision to race in the Gulf state has come under intense scrutiny over the weekend as questions over the teams' safety have been raised alongside objections on moral grounds. On Friday the leader of the UK's opposition party Ed Miliband said: "Given the human rights issues in Bahrain, I don't think the grand prix should go ahead."

But Brawn said it was unfair to raise objections once the teams and drivers were in Bahrain and that the best course of action now is to analyse the decision once F1 has left the country.

"I think we are here now, and after this event we need to sit down and discuss it," he was quoted by Autosport. "We are committed to this race, we are having a race, and after the race with proper judgement of what happened and what we saw, we need to come to a conclusion."

He added: "I find it very frustrating that politicians in the UK were saying that we should withdraw once we got here. Why didn't they say that beforehand? For somebody to try and make Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton determine the foreign policy of a country, is wrong. We know there is a lot of that stuff goes on, but with calm collective analysis after the event we will have a look at it and see."

When it was put to FIA president Jean Todt that the sport may have been damaged by some of the headlines across the globe this weekend, he said: "I am sorry about what has been reported. I am not sure that all that has been reported corresponds to the reality of what is happening in this country.

"I feel F1 is very strong. I think it is a very strong brand, and I think all the people among the teams to whom I have been speaking are very happy. I was even told it would have been a mistake not to come. Again, you speak to those people. That is what I have been told by most of the team principals here.

"Unfortunately I did not see so many of those quotes in the media. But I respect the media, I respect what they write, but it is not what I have seen and what I was told by a lot of people to whom I have been talking."

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