Max Mosley to Miss 2009 Bahrain GP, Again

FIA president Max Mosley will again miss the Bahrain Grand Prix, the 4th round of the 2009 Formula 1 schedule. This will be the second consecutive season when the 78-year old Englishman will not witness the F1 action at the Sakhir circuit live, but probably on TV. However, as announced by circuit manager Martin Whitaker, Mosley's absence will be the result of his own will, and not of a potential ban.

Last year, Gulf Kingdom's royal family publicly asked Mosley to miss the Bahrain-scheduled round of the F1 calendar, as the FIA president was involved in a controversial sex scandal at the time. Accused by the media for setting up a Holocaust-themed orgy with 5 hookers, the Englishman would have brought nothing but bad publicity to the country of Bahrain.

In the meantime, however, the FIA president was cleared of all anti-Semitic accusations by a High Court in the United Kingdom.

This year's Bahrain Grand Prix will be held between the 24th and 26th of April.

Moving away from the Mosley topic, the Bahrain Grand Prix officials revealed plans to build a US $664 million conference center at the site of the Sakhir circuit by 2011. The new construction will cover approximately 150,000m2 and was announced by Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) director Debbie Stanford-Kristiansen.

“This will be the first exhibition centre that's positioned next to a Formula One track and it will house a five-star and a four-star hotel as well as retail outlets – it will almost be like a city,” explained Stanford-Kristiansen, according to Middle East's business magazine Arabian Business.