Speaking in Shanghai, Bernie Ecclestone has said that next week's Bahrain Grand Prix will go ahead as planned, unless the local authorities deem otherwise.

"The race is on the calendar, it's scheduled," he told reporters. "The only people that can do anything about it is the national sporting authority in the country that can ask for it to be withdrawn from the calendar. Unless it gets withdrawn by the national sporting authority in the country, then we'll be there."

Asked about claims that he is to discuss the Bahrain event with the teams as a result of growing unease amongst them, the F1 supremo said: "I'm meeting the teams on unrelated matters. I'm not meeting them about Bahrain or Barcelona or Monaco or anywhere.

"I don't think the people in Bahrain have got anything against Formula One team people or journalists," he added. "Apparently people are carrying out their business as normal, I'm told. There's a guy from Lotus who went over to check things and he said it was business as usual. But I don't know, I haven't been there."

Ecclestone, who previously owned the Brabham team, was asked how he would feel about the situation were he still a team owner.

"When we enter a country in the normal way, we don't deal with the religion or the politics," he replied. "We will go there. If it was a pop singer, they would be there and they would sing. We shouldn't get involved with other people's politics in Formula 1 racing."