A Decision on the Bahrain Grand Prix -- Oh, and There's a Race in China Too SHANGHAI - Until today's first practice sessions for the Chinese Grand Prix, the talk in Shanghai had not been about the race here at all, but about whether the Bahrain Grand Prix - the race scheduled after this one - would take place. Finally, after a day and a half in Shanghai, all the various stakeholders are agreed: Bahrain will happen. Formula One A view from the paddock with Brad Spurgeon. The Bahraini promoters themselves never expressed doubts about the race, calling media reports of violent confrontations overblown. They say the race could help heal a nation where an uprising began on Feb. 14, 2011. Nearly 30 people lost their jobs at the Bahraini Formula One circuit for attending protests last year and the race was canceled. "Mistakes were made," Zayed Alzayani, chairman of the Bahrain International Circuit, told my colleague Souad Mekhennet in Manama, the capital, on Friday. But in recent weeks there has been a whirlwind of questioning within the paddock as to whether it should take place this year. The demonstrations, violence and threats continue in Bahrain, and have, in fact, worsened. Demonstrators have denounced the race as an imposition by the royal family that they want stopped. If it is not stopped, they warn, they will obstruct it. Yesterday, here in the paddock, it seemed everyone was passing the buck. The teams said whether the race would happen was up to the International Automobile Federation, the series" governing body, and the commercial promoter, Bernie Ecclestone. The drivers said it was up to their teams. Ecclestone said it was up to the Bahrainis. The F.I.A. remained silent. Friday, however, the F.I.A. released a statement saying that the race would go ahead. And Ecclestone met with the teams and told them there was no worry about safety and no reason for the race to be canceled. The teams said they were happy with this conclusion. "Based on the current information the F.I.A. has at this stage, it is satisfied that all the proper security measures are in place for the running of a Formula One World Championship event in Bahrain," the association said. Therefore, the F.I.A. confirms that the 2012 Gulf Air F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain will go ahead as scheduled. That was confirmed by Ecclestone. "Everybody's happy," Ecclestone said in Shanghai. We haven't got any problems. It's a problem being discussed by the media. They don't have any idea what's going on. That's the problem. "This race is on the calendar, and has been on the calendar for quite a long time, and we will be there," he said. All the teams are happy to be there. Team directors confirmed that. "I am happy to take the team to Bahrain," said Toto Wolff, the Williams team director. I have to balance out what information I get and, at the moment, it seems to be competent information. And you have to, at a certain stage, rely on that information. He added that this information was more valuable to him than what he heard on Facebook, where protests against the race have multiplied. But while Ecclestone may think worries about going to Bahrain are a media fabrication, that is not the view reporters find in the paddock. Off the record, no one in the Formula One circus says they are looking forward to attending. True, Mark Webber, the driver at Red Bull, and one of the only drivers to speak his mind about the race, said that he wanted to go and race, because that is what he loves to do. But he also spent 15 minutes in a press scrum on Thursday voicing the exact same feeling and fears of the media and everyone else. He went so far as to say that while he and his team would have extra security, that was not something he felt entirely comfortable with when he knew that many people that follow the series would not have any security. But the crux of the problem, increasingly discussed in the paddock, is what I mentioned in my Rendezvous post at the beginning of the week: Even if no one is injured, should Formula One be going into a country where it is being used to convey a political message and where the race has divided the population, with the government wanting the race and the demonstrators representing the Shiite majority opposing it. The 24 Formula One drivers and 12 teams they drive for clearly have a race to win. But critics say Formula One as a whole has nothing to win by going to Bahrain. If it pulls off the gambit and comes out with no one injured on either side and a race that is run as smoothly as anywhere else in the world, it cannot cry "success." The series will have honored its contract with the local promoters, but the uprising in Bahrain and the social conditions that created it look set to continue. This weekend, in any case, Formula One continues, and perhaps there will be a little more talk about the Chinese Grand Prix. Today Michael Schumacher set the fastest time of the practice sessions, showing that he is truly rising back after two years of struggling since retirement. Perfect timing for the first of six portraits I plan to do of the six Formula One world champions racing in the series this year. I did the Schumacher portrait as part of my Chinese Grand Prix preview. The preview contains my usual race history as well. The main feature this weekend is the story about qualifying sessions and their relative value this year.