In unfortunate news, F1 head man Bernie Ecclestone announced Feb. 21, that due to political unrest in the country (and region for that matter) the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix. In an interview he stated that, "Shortly before the crisis I had lunch with the Crown Prince (HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa) and there was absolutely no indication of what would come just days after. He was full of ideas for the future then shortly after the chain of events set in." Ecclestone goes on to say that the FIA council will meet at the beginning of March and discuss options for rescheduling the race for later in the season; possibly during the summer break.
That being said the 2011 season will kick off in Australia at the end of March. With the extra weeks of testing before the official opener, it should be interesting to see what the teams will come up with. This early out, it anybody's championship!
