Bernie has blamed the media for opposition to Bahrain, death, torture and imprisonment does not enter the equation. We at Pitpass have been consistent in our opposition to the race, and vociferous in that opposition. We have no hidden agenda. Nobody is paying us to express an opinion. We have never been invited on a carefully-orchestrate 'fact finding' mission involving first class air travel and a five star hotel.

Our opposition stems from the fact that we love the sport and do not want to see it turned into a political football. Shanghai built a circuit for political reasons, and China is no great shakes when it comes to human rights, but the owner of the circuit is not also the titular head of the armed forces.

It is the intimate relationship between the Bahraini royal family and both the race and internal oppression which causes us concern. Bahrain has an hereditary dictatorship. England has an hereditary monarch, but the Queen reigns, she does not rule. There is the difference.

The Queen is powerless, but she occupies all the positions of power and therefore no grubby politician can. It is not rational, but it seems to work. According to scientific laws, a bumble bee cannot fly, but it does.

We are used to drivers looking forward to a race and predicting that their team has something special up its sleeve. At Melbourne. Michael Schumacher established another first in motor racing. He said that he was relaxed about racing in Bahrain because he was confident that the security team Mercedes will employ is the business. Not, you notice, anything about a new wing, but about security.

He seems to have forgotten the dictum that security must be impregnable all the time while those who wish to breech it have to be lucky just once.

Perhaps he, and people like Ross Brawn and Bernie, are so engrossed in their work that he has not noticed that perhaps as many as 20 per-cent of the Bahraini population turned out on 9th March to protest against the regime.

I am sceptical about the numbers involved in any demonstration, both sides tend to be manipulative, but I have seen the photos and that was a huge protest by anyone's standard. In New York or London it would have made headlines round the world. On a pro rata basis, it was perhaps the largest grassroots demonstration in history, but it barely made the Western media.

Last year, the Shia majority was asking only for civil rights, now it is calling for regime change. The royal family could have buried the issue with a few concessions, instead they ordered in the troops. Saudi Arabia, that bastion of civilised values, invaded and its troops destroyed at least a dozen Shia mosques.

The Crown Prince owns/owned the circuit and the rights to the Grand Prix. My information is that he has been side-lined as hard-liners in the extensive royal family have taken over and are calling the shots. This may be why the tartan philosopher has been quiet of late.

Incidentally, Bahrain has a Prime Minister, which sounds sort of liberal until you realise that Khalifa bin Salman is the king's uncle, is unelected, and has been in the post since 1971. He must be really popular and good at his job to have been in office that long.