Lotus hits out at Bahrain organisers

The Lotus F1 team has hit out at organisers of the Bahrain Grand Prix for publishing comments from a confidential document in a statement released to the press that attempted to play down the current situation in the Gulf State. The statement hit out at the 'armchair observers' and the 'scaremongering tactics of certain small extremists groups' for causing much of the current concern about whether the race should take place, and included a number of comments from various parties stating that there was no reason why the race shouldn't take place. Amongst those comments was an extract from a report from Lotus, which was issued to rival teams after two representatives from the team made a trip to Bahrain to evaluate the situation. Lotus has however now hit out at the Bahrain organisers for making the extract public and has distanced itself from the decision making process about whether the race should take place, saying that such a decision should only be taken by the FIA. “Earlier today, the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) issued a press release attributing quotes to our team showing support for the Bahrain GP,” the Lotus statement – issued on Tuesday evening – read. “These quotes were part of a full internal and confidential working document, that was also sent on a confidential basis to all F1 team managers last week. “Lotus F1 Team is one of 12 contestants of the Formula 1 World Championship and we would never try to substitute ourselves for the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), which is the only party entitled to determine if a Grand Prix should go ahead or not, and we endorse the FOTA statement that was issued earlier to this effect.” FOTA's statement, also released on Tuesday, insisted that the teams couldn't make the decision over whether the race goes ahead and that the FIA had to make the final call.