The first race in the Middle East was preceded by fears of terrorism, too much sand and scorching heat. In the end, it was a marvelous event that provided fans an unusual experience and another proof that Bernie Ecclestone seems to know what he's doing. Atlas F1's Thomas O'Keefe travelled to the Gulf kingdom and brings a report from the frontline of a peaceful and historic gathering

Although I remain bitterly disappointed that I did not win the red Ferrari Modena 360 – a Bahrainian-sized door prize – that went to the lucky ticket holder chosen by Michael Schumacher at high noon on race-day, in every other way the inaugural Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix was an astonishing and unforgettable sensory and sporting experience for those lucky enough to be there.

Old and New: On Land and in the Air

This Grand Prix had everything a Formula One fan could want under one roof, and what a roof it was: dramatic Islamic-style architecture following a desert tent motif combined with world class infrastructure.

For those who cherish the rich history of Grand Prix racing, the 26 Thoroughbred Grand Prix Cars that usually run in Europe were imported especially as a support race and the quality of the field was stunning: Jackie Stewart's pristine Tyrrell Chassis 001, looking like it had just emerged from Uncle Ken's woodshed, a McLaren M23 from the Texaco-sponsored era, four of the Saudi Air-sponsored Williams cars driven by Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg and Carlos Reutemann, a yellow Fittipaldi Copersucar, two John Player and Essex-sponsored Lotuses, a Surtees, an old but fast Arrows, a Benetton that had been driven by the late Michele Alboreto and the one-off lobster-claw Brabham, the last of the Brabham/Tauranac line, driven by Graham Hill. Because of all the garage space, the Thoroughbred Grand Prix Cars had their own ample-sized garages where you could see the mechanics tear down the whole car before each run, all the body panels stripped off, tweaking the aging Cosworths and checking every bolt of these 25 year-old cars.

Another unique treat from an even earlier classic era was an appearance put in by one of the most successful Grand Prix cars of all time, the Mercedes-Benz W196 from the 1954 and 1955 seasons that were driven to back-to-back Championships by Juan Manuel Fangio. Mercedes-Benz sent the Streamliner version of the W196 that ran at the high-speed tracks like Rheims, Silverstone and Monza. Here in Bahrain, it looked quite at home, cornering evenly through the tight Turn 1 complex and as it accelerated out of the slow turn uphill to the straight, making a fabulous sound-raspy and throaty and mechanical sounding all at once – and clearly audible to the fans since it was the only car on the track as it did its solo demonstration runs. To see and hear that magnificent car in action was alone worth the price of admission.

Also for old car buffs and historians of the Mideast, the King of Bahrain has a large collection of cars and contributed four Dodge Power Wagons for use at the Grand Prix. The significance of this vehicle is that in the mid-1930s these Dodge Power Wagons were the workhorses of oil exploration in the deserts of Bahrain and elsewhere in the Mideast. Bahrain is the first place where oil was found in the Mideast and the King has not forgotten the importance of these vehicles to the early oil discoveries that enriched the region.

But the Power Wagons did not just sit there on display but were put to the kind of creative and thoughtful use that marked the whole Grand Prix. Instead of using the somewhat incongruous flatbed trailer typically put into service for the drivers' parade before the race, the 20 drivers split themselves up into smaller groups and hopped into the bench seats in the back of the King's four Dodge Power Wagons – one white, one sand-colored, one blue and one British racing green (Jenson Button got in that one, naturally). The crowd appreciated the connection between this heroic vehicle in the country's history and the modern-day heroes riding in them. In fact, the Dodge Power Wagons were about the only success Daimler-Chrysler products would have on race weekend in Bahrain so it was a good thing the King loaned them out.

And of course there was the new to go with the old. The BMW-powered single seater series called Formula BMW Asia provided lots of entertainment for the crowd, who were cheering on some of the Mideast-sponsored cars and drivers. It was a very knowledgeable and large crowd where I was sitting in the Grandstand across from the busy Turn 1, who took under its collective wing a particular BMW racer who spun as many ways and places as possible in the tricky Turn 1 switchbacks, where Ralf Schumacher and Takuma Sato would later on tangle during the Grand Prix. Once the pattern became painfully clear, each time the befuddled driver would come by he would receive encouraging applause from the generous crowd, particularly in the latter stages of the race when he finally managed to get through the Turn 1 complex without spinning.

Before the Grand Prix, I had the opportunity to patrol the paddock area and everything about it is truly from the Age of the Pharaohs, open spaces graced with palm trees set between the monumental buildings and grandstands. The spectacular looking and functional architecture provided shade not only to the grandstands themselves but also to the adjacent open areas so that there was always a way to escape the broiling sun if you wanted to. And the heat, by the way, was not all that daunting, at least in the fully-covered grandstands where, once you got there, a desert breeze actually made it quite comfortable and a lot less hot than, say, the usual sunny Sunday in the stadium area of Hockenheim.

But the paddock/media center area was where the monumentality of architecture somewhat detracted from the usual clubby atmosphere of the paddock. In a tiny place like the Imola paddock where Formula One goes next, space is at such a premium that drivers and team principals, starlets and TV journalists, print media and VIPs, rub shoulder-to-shoulder all weekend long in a magical melange. At Bahrain, there is a gulf of perhaps 20 yards from the hospitality suites across to the garage area and, overall, the teams have so much space they almost don't know what to do with it.

However, unlike Sepang, the other hot weather venue, there are outside terraces with tables for each team at Bahrain and as the weekend wore on, people realized that sitting outside was nicer than the air-conditioning for much of the day and a more congenial atmosphere began to take hold by late Sunday afternoon. The facilities are so fabulous that even the lowly media had not only its own media building but also its own tent to use as a kind of cafeteria and when, incredibly, the rains and desert winds came on race morning, what the Bahrainis built stood up to the 45 mph gusts with barely a ripple in the taut tentwork. These people know tents.

Some things, though, remained the same. The layout of the paddock followed the Darwinian format used in the European paddocks. At one end of the row of private team suites and hospitality areas was Minardi and at the other end was Ferrari, the Italianate bookends of Formula One. Bernie held court in the corner office next to Ferrari since he did not bring his bus with him to the desert.

Amidst this almost movie-set backdrop, Bernie did his traditional weekend flying lap around the paddock with his visitors, showing off Formula One to the array of royalty gathered for this very special race. At one point in a weekend that was supposedly one where we had to be on the lookout for terrorists lurking around every corner, King Juan Carlos of Spain was in a circle with Prince Albert of Monaco and Prince Andrew of England along with members of the Royal Family of the King of Bahrain. Their host Bernie told the local newspapers when he was asked why he did not have a bodyguard, "I am probably safer here than I am in London."

In addition to the risks all these potentates were taking as they gathered together in one place, the organizers had one further bit of derring-do up their sleeves that was one of the most remarkable sights I have ever seen. To begin with, Gulf Air was the name sponsor of the Bahrain Grand Prix and the company was an activist sponsor which was much in evidence throughout the entire weekend. I flew Gulf Air from Europe and on each seat headrest was a linen bib emblazoned with the logo of the Grand Prix. Gulf Air's in-flight magazine was almost entirely devoted to the race and even the in-flight entertainment had an F1 feature. Where have you ever seen that! And when we got off the plane, the Captain welcomed us to the Grand Prix and wished us well. I was told that Gulf Air had 29 flights into Bahrain before noon on race day.

So perhaps I should not have been surprised that just before the race began, the announcer advised the crowd that a Gulf Air Airbus 330 was approaching the Bahrain International Circuit and would do a fly-by of the circuit. Soon Bernie's TV screens began to show the airliner approaching, shadowed by two helicopters which were recording the event.

But then it became apparent that it was more than a fly-by and this huge airliner, which is designed to fly at 40,000 feet, would descend to just 500 feet as it flew over the track. On the first fly-by, the Airbus flew directly over the roof of the Main Grandstand, down the main straight toward Turn 1, which is located just across from the signature building of the circuit, the seven-story VIP tower, that is the most distinctive feature of a track with many distinctive features.

What happened on the second fly-by was quite a piece of flying. Instead of flying above the Grandstands, the pilot veered off over the track and into the infield and headed inboard of the VIP tower, whimsically rocking the plane's huge wings to the crowd as if it were a Cessna while giving the occupants of the VIP Suite the thrill of a lifetime, as the Gulf Air Airbus, resplendent in its gold over white livery, flew around the VIP tower so low that the plane was at the level of the fifth floor of the seven-story building.

And then, incredibly tempting fate, the pilot did a third fly-by, again maneuvering across the track and around the VIP tower at 500 feet, a stunt-flying airliner that was both scary and yet miraculous to behold. While the Indianapolis Motor Speedway regularly plays host to whatever the hot aircraft of choice is at each year's Indianapolis 500 where we have seen Stealth Bombers, Warthogs, F-18's and Harrier Jump Jet flyovers, even Tony George would not expect to see a 747 fly by his office suite in the IMS Tower, eyeball-to-eyeball. I would be amazed if Gulf Air ever does that barnstorming airliner ballet again but the Kingdom of Bahrain is full of surprises so perhaps they will prove me wrong.

How We Got Here

Indeed, the whole idea of having a Grand Prix in the desert in the middle of a part of the world that is at war is really vintage Bernie.

When I first heard that Bernie was going to have a Grand Prix in the Middle East I thought it was just another gossamer dream by some Sheik that Bernie met at Harrods on a shopping spree, who wanted to have a go and Bernie was humoring him. After all, we had the Russian Grand Prix on Nagatino Island a few years back, which never materialized. We had a Korean Grand Prix in the late 1990s where the organizers defaulted and Bernie cashed their $12 million letter of credit put up as collateral. And then there were the oft-mentioned Grands Prix of Turkey, India and other such exotic places, which have not yet gotten beyond the discussion stages. But having a Grand Prix in a war zone: it was just like Bernie, not afraid of anyone or anything.

Where does Bernie come up with his ideas for these new venues? In the midst of traveling, I think I found the place and it is probably not Harrods. No, the Rosetta Stone that Bernie uses to choose future Grand Prix venues is Terminal 1, Charles de Gaulle Airport (“CDG”), Paris, France, my European jumping off point for traveling to Bahrain.

Most of us who have traveled to France see the main terminal at CDG, but off in a corner of CDG is Terminal 1, an artistic looking concrete structure in the round, where they keep the oddball airlines from countries where tobacco advertising is still allowed. The masthead of the airlines serviced out of Terminal 1 is Formula One's future: Gulf Air which serves Bahrain, Dubai and the rest of the Middle East, Cyprus Airways, Air China, Thai Air, Uzbekistan Airways, Air Moldova, Armenian International Airways, Qatar Airways and Oman Airways.

So the next time Bernie's Land Rover gets stuck in the mud coming into Silverstone, look out because he just goes down the list of Terminal 1 destinations to choose the next lucky country who wants to be put on the map: presto, and the Armenian Grand Prix will be up and running in a year's time.

And although at first blush the Kingdom of Bahrain and Formula One would seem to be worlds apart – one steeped in Islamic law and tradition going back hundreds of years, and the other whose tradition is barely 50 years old, on the cutting edge of technology and revving at 19,000 rpm, the closer you look you begin to see what Bernie saw when he first stumbled into the idea of a Grand Prix in the desert.

Here at last the aging entrepreneur, in an age of non-entrepreneurs, found a society where you could make a $150 million deal with one man who could make it stick, His Excellency Sheik Fawaz Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, and in 15 months, an old camel farm in the desert has been transformed into a world class racing facility, no Brands Hatch planning board meetings required. Without necessarily intending to, Bernie and the Sheik will probably end up doing more to promote civility in the Middle East than any of the wars and schemes being undertaken by politicians in Washington, D.C., New York, London, Tel Aviv and the Gaza Strip.

In fact, Bahrain was officially a No Fire Zone on April 4, 2004. The various factions of Bahrainian society were so sensible that for Grand Prix weekend, the 100-200 Islamic Extremists demonstrators who periodically rant and chant and throw rocks at the American Embassy agreed to a truce and agreed not to spoil the party for all the visitors to Bahrain. Even the McDonald's in Manama, Bahrain, the most visible symbol of Western cultural corruption and the occasional subject of the demonstrators, was left unmolested by the demonstrators, much to my personal relief, looking out as I was for the inner man.

His Excellency's Most Excellent Adventure

You never know what to expect at a new venue when everything is new and everyone is new, and the strong possibility existed in the case of the Bahrain Grand Prix that much could go wrong. In addition to the problems of indigenous Islamic extremists ruining the weekend I had visions of the atmosphere that must have prevailed on the weekend of the 1958 Grand Prix of Casablanca, the last time Formula One ventured into the desert, when the sand on the track was a factor in what would turn out to be the race that would decide the 1958 World Championship between Stirling Moss and Mike Hawthorn. And indeed in that one-time-only race, tragedy struck in the form of the death of a promising new driver, Stuart Lewis-Evans, who died in England of burns he suffered in a crash at Casablanca. Formula One never went back there again.

Montjuich Park in Barcelona, Spain, 1975, was another chaotic race that came to mind, where Emerson Fittipaldi and other drivers found that bolts on the Armco barriers were negligently being left undone and Fittipaldi presciently declared the track unsafe. Due to rain and other factors, Fittipaldi turned out to be correct and after an accident involving Rolf Stommelen and spectator fatalities, the race was red-flagged and Formula One never went back to Montjuich again.

Or remembering the drivers strike at Kyalami in 1982, I wondered whether perhaps sandstorm conditions after initial practice sessions or a track safety situation would manifest itself and be such that Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber, the current leaders of the Grand Prix Drivers Association, might threaten not to race until the conditions were addressed to their satisfaction.

But happily, none of that happened and All the King's Men in both Kingdoms had a whale of a race.

Even the practice sessions, which seem somewhat boring on TV, were interesting at Bahrain, as the so-called “third driver” phenomenon took hold with full force on the new track, with drivers like Ricardo Zonta of Toyota and Anthony Davidson of BAR taking front stage and putting in the most laps for their teams to work through the alternative tire compounds on the new track surface, covering ground for the principal drivers who ran fewer laps to save their engines for the one-engine-rule weekend.

Watching Anthony Davidson's performance in the BAR Honda spare car No. 35 as it drove into Turn 1 was another unexpectedly delicious moment. Because Turn 1 is so slow, the crowd in the Turn 1 Grandstand gets to hear at close range the distinct sound of the Honda engine as it snaps, crackles and pops during the downshifting process and then clears its throat as the car gathers itself up and accelerates out of the turn. Davidson's ability to throw around the car speaks well of his confidence in the set up and presaged the performances of his teammates during the race. Indeed, when Friday's practice sessions were over, test driver Davidson was in third place, behind principal drivers Rubens Barrichello of Ferrari and Juan Pablo Montoya of Williams.

And in the end, although you now know that it was the same old story with Michael Schumacher winning his third straight Grand Prix for Ferrari, the BAR team and its strong performance throughout the weekend by all of its drivers was a very new story, the highest team finish in its history and the final flowering of efforts by both BAR and Honda to transform their car into a contender after five years in the desert, so to speak, just in time for Honda's promised announcement in June 2004 of whether or not Honda will stay in Formula One. One can only imagine what Jacques Villeneuve is thinking as he watches his old team finally become successful, a year too late for his own career. In effect, in two weeks time, Jenson Button has equaled the total number of BAR podiums achieved by Villeneuve over five seasons.

Button's success in achieving his second podium in two races is a classic backing up of previous good performances in both Australia and Malaysia. Takuma Sato's electrifying performance in Turn 1 at Bahrain in aggressively passing David Coulthard's McLaren-Mercedes and in not giving way to Ralf Schumacher's BMW-Williams when push came to shove is more proof that the team has arrived. Perhaps the best evidence of how far the BAR Honda has come in just three weeks is that its second driver, Takuma Sato, is now dicing with two of the top three teams when he could only finish ninth and fifteenth in the first two races this season. Although Kimi Raikkonen seems to be going down in flames due to transmission problems and engines blowing up in his McLaren-Mercedes, BAR is the team on fire and the whole pitlane is remembering what happened the last time the Honda steamroller got going: World Drivers' Championships and World Constructors' titles from 1986 to 1991.

But it will take all the resources Honda can muster to bridge the considerable gap that the Bahrain race demonstrated still exists between Everyone Else and Michael Schumacher of Ferrari, for whom I have run out of superlatives. At one point during the weekend after a practice session, Michael Schumacher marched -and I do mean marched – at pace with the longer-legged Ross Brawn gamely keeping up beside him, clipboard in hand, across the great expanse from the garage area to the Ferrari suite, Schumacher's uniform buttoned up to the neck and Brawn and Schumacher talking as animatedly as schoolgirls.

At a distance of 10 paces behind them came a bedraggled Rubens Barrichello on his own, uniform pulled down to the waist, literally unable to keep up with this startling Superman in our midst. To illustrate how great the gulf is between Ferrari and all the other teams, should Schumacher have an accident mid-season as he did in 1999, it seems more than likely that Ruben Barrichello would have little difficulty in becoming the 2004 World Drivers' Champion, so good is this car, something Eddie Irvine could not do when he had the opportunity in 1999.

So it is on from the vastness of Bahrain to the forced intimacy of Imola, a melancholy visit for a variety of reasons: because of the 10th Anniversary of Ayrton Senna's death there in 1994, because it may be Imola's last time hosting a Grand Prix and because, in a certain sense, the total dominance of the sport by Michael Schumacher demonstrated so recently in the desert of Bahrain had its origins that day 10 years ago at Tamburello. Will the end of Imola coincide with the beginning of the end of Schumacher's 10-year reign? That is about as likely as running a successful Grand Prix in a desert, but, as the experience with the Bahrain Grand Prix shows, you just never know in Formula One.

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