FOM block footage of Force India in Bahrain?

Rumours on twitter and forums have surfaced today that Formula One managment told race directors not to show any footage of any of the Force Indiacars in Practice and Qualifing today following their cars failing to participate in Free Practice 2 yesterday, due to the team leaving the Bahrain circut early due to safety fears.

On Wednesday some team personel were caught up in the middle of a car bomb incident, which wasn’t intended for them, and four members of staff have stayed home in London.

There has been much talk and debate over why Formula 1 is in Bahrain because of the political protests and uproar in the country. FIA president Jean Todt and FOM chief Bernie Ecclestone deemed it safe.

Force India, after discussions with Bernie Ecclestone, still left early before dark at the circuit yesterday and were not seen on screen during Practice today and qualifying, which seemed to be deliberate decision as at times both cars were setting laps by themselves on the track and camera’s were focused on the pits.  In Qualifying 2, Scottish driver Paul Di Resta went on to set a fantastic time to get into the top ten shootout but wasn’t seen, neither was team mate Nico Hulkenburg as the camera’s focused on Felipe Massa in his Ferrari on a warm up lap.

During qualifying twitter and forums caught on by the lack of direction to show Force India’s on track.  Sky Sports F1 presenter Simon Lazenby on air hinted at FOM may have not chosen to show Force India and Sky Sports twitter page posted a tweet saying: “For those asking, we have no control over who is being shown on the world feed, sorry you didn’t get to see any of Di Resta’s lap.”

It remains to see if FOM will show Force India in the race tomorrow.

Have you got any thoughts, please leave your comments below.