Amid reports of continuing unrest in the island Kingdom and claims F1 should boycott the event also on moral grounds, the Sakhir circuit on Wednesday was pushing ahead with preparations for Bahrain’s return in 2012.

Track boss Salman bin Isa Al-Khalifa said staff sacked amid the protests that last year caused the race’s cancellation have been offered their old jobs.

It is “an important initiative towards national reconciliation and unity”, he insisted.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone has suggested the event will only be cancelled again in extreme circumstances.

“We enter a championship run by the FIA,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told the BBC, “and we need to trust in their decision.”

Agreed Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicali: “We need to rely on the competent authorities.”

But the famous Italian team’s boss was asked if the FIA’s judgement can still be trusted after a delegate last year gave Bahrain the all-clear.

“Maybe (that) experience will give a different approach and the information will be more accurate,” Domenicali is quoted by the Telegraph from Ferrari’s annual winter media event in the Italian Dolomites.

YallaF1.com