Bahrain GP suitability 'could be investigated' says FIA candidate

FIA presidential candidate David Ward would set up an investigation to establish whether Bahrain should hold a grand prix, if he is elected.

The event was cancelled in 2011 after civil unrest, but was reinstated last year by the current head of motorsport's governing body, Jean Todt.
But Ward said Todt was guilty of "poor decision-making".
"The important thing is to be neutral. What is merited is an investigatory visit," he said.

Who is David Ward?

Age: 57
Current roles: Executive secretary of independent commission for global road safety; secretary general of the Global New Car Assessment programme (NCAP), which defines safety standards in road cars
Past experience: Has worked for FIA for last 20 years in a number of roles, including:
Director general of the FIA Foundation (a charity supporting global road safety, the environment and sustainability and funding motorsport safety) from 2001-13 (resigned ahead of declaring he was running for the FIA presidency)
Secretary general FIA court of appeal 2001-6
Before joining the FIA, Ward was chief policy adviser to Labour leader John Smith from 1988-94.

"Look at things on the ground, talk to all sides as far as is possible and make a judgement based on that."

The Bahrain GP was cancelled two years ago after the unrest led to a violent suppression of protests and accusations that authorities had engaged in torture and other human rights abuses.
Todt sent the head of the Spanish motorsport federation on a fact-finding mission to the troubled Gulf state ahead of the reinstatement of the race in 2012 but his report was widely criticised.
Ward and Todt are the only candidates to have declared so far for the 6 December FIA election.
Speaking in an interview with BBC Sport, 58-year-old Englishman Ward said: "I think he was rather badly served in that mission. I felt sorry for him, actually."
Ward, a long-time adviser of former FIA president Max Mosley, said he would send "someone with expertise in the area" to Bahrain, citing as an example Edwin Glasgow QC, who chaired the Bloody Sunday inquiry into the actions of British security forces in Northern Ireland in the 1970s.

Posted in: Formula 1