20 years of the Bahrain Grand Prix: David Tremayne remembers F1's first visit to the Middle East

Sakhir was the work, like so many other tracks of the time, of Hermann Tilke, who designed it at the same time as he was drawing the Sepang circuit in Malaysia. Think about that for a moment…

It was built on the site of a camel farm and the Sakhir oasis and, according to legend, around 60,000 tons of Welsh granite had to be imported for its construction. And each decorative palm tree costs around $2,000. Apparently, although the sun would have made me too delirious to count them all myself, there were at least five thousand.

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It was about a 40-minute drive from Manama, the capital of the Gulf kingdom and one of its most elegant. And as we approached Sakhir, the buildings loomed eerily in a cloud of dust on the horizon, but the whole place was undeniably impressive. Clearly, the investment had been enormous. And of course Bernie Ecclestone loved that.

It was the perfect means not only to defend what really was an international F1 series, but also to pinch the noses of those European circuits whose arguments of impecunity he had long tired of. This was an excellent way to fire a warning shot through their bows and remind them that the sport did not necessarily have to remain firmly rooted in either their old ways or their old places.

Surprisingly, the entire place had been built in just 18 months which, considering the conditions the builders had to work in, was simply incredible. An extraordinary example of what can be achieved with will, financing and organization.

It is perhaps appropriate, given the status and legendary heritage of the team, that in the first Grand Prix in the Middle East Ferrari scored a 1-2 with Michael Schumacher narrowly leading Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button taking his BAR-Honda to last place. from the podium. The race was considered a great success and subsequently received an award from the FIA ​​as the “Best Organized Grand Prix” of 2004.

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It wasn't until four years later, in 2008, that things… matured. I matured. The week before that season's Grand Prix there was some sort of motorsports conference, at which I was part of a discussion group.

It was a fun old week. The president of the FIA ​​was quite in the spotlight for one thing or another, but what worried me much more was the message upon arriving at the airport that our friend the Scottish pilot David Leslie had just died in a plane crash. I confess that I was not at my best under such circumstances and came close to embarrassing myself in public at times, and not only while writing his obituary.

But interestingly, that was when Bahrain really clicked for me, despite the miserable times. Or maybe thanks to them. Distractions were welcome and there were many interesting Bahraini figures to chat with at the seminars. They were warm and friendly characters, and we all made good friends that week.

I guess I had been stripped of my remaining preconceptions – or maybe I had just grown up a bit – but I suddenly felt open to all kinds of new experiences, and since I spent quite a bit of time watching people and absorbing things, I came to do that. key understanding.

They loved motorsports as much as we did!

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And not only that, but the organizers were determined to make this race one of the best, and nothing was too much for them. It never has been.

The press room has always been a cool and much-needed oasis of calm, while the paddock has always been one of my favourites, with its palm trees, its shady pit stops, the way you can sit in one of the areas of team hospitality. , chat with anyone while watching the world go by… Or stuff yourself and gawk under the dim lighting at the welcome food festival. It has its own unique aura.

For the first time in 565 races I missed some Grands Prix during Covid, and it was somehow fitting that my return in 2022 occurred in Bahrain, where several long talks in the paddock sun had the same effect on my morale as if it were a Red carpet. It had been designed especially for me.

Twenty years ago, F1 visited Bahrain and China in the same calendar year. As my colleague Adam Cooper once pointed out, in the previous 30 years I had only attended four completely new venues: Japan in 1976, Australia in 1985, Hungary in 1986 and Malaysia in 1999.

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As part of the push to globalize F1, the Bahrain Grand Prix proved to be a big step in the right direction and the prototype for other countries with no experience in the sport to spread their own wings.

And the relationship has worked for mutual benefit. In difficult times, the race has brought Sunnis and Shias together because the economy that benefits both needs it (indeed, has prospered and expanded because of it) and today Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund, Mumtalakat, plays a role increasingly important in global finances (not at least in F1 through McLaren).

And the innovative Grand Prix remains one of the sport's most popular events two decades later and an attractive place to start each new season.