A F1cking Disgrace

It's a huge weekend for Formula One, whether you give a damn about it or not.

The teams will meet to decide whether this year's race in Bahrain on April 22nd will go ahead or not, with the smart money on it being cancelled for the second year in a row due to ongoing civil unrest.

One argument in favour of the race going ahead is that cancelling it would deprive the economy of millions of dollars and would, therefore, be bad for the 'man on the street'.

The same 'man on the street' - one presumes - whose human rights have been consistently denied by an oppressive regime, and whose fellow countrymen have been convicted in unfair military trials.

One of the most persuasive voices in the debate is former Formula One champion Damon Hill who told the BBC that: "My concern is really that F1 is perceived to be indifferent".

There's an easy way to solve that perceived indifference: don't bloody go.

F1 needs to realise it doesn't exist in its own bubble; for example, the current F1 calendar includes FIVE countries - a quarter of the entire calendar - where being gay is illegal.

The sport has an impact like no other in terms of worldwide reach and appeal, and should be working it arse off to benefit the people who keep it alive, who watch in their millions, and who feed its greedy commercial fire.

So it's a big weekend for Formula One. It has the chance to show dickhead regimes that it's not right to kill, detain and torture people - and show the rest of us that it cares. A bit.