As expected, it was announced today that the Bahrain GP scheduled for March 11-13 has been cancelled. It had been expected that Bernie Ecclestone and/or the FIA would make this decision sometime in the next few days but the event organizers beat them to it.

The statement says: “The Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) today announced that the Kingdom of Bahrain would withdraw from hosting this year’s F1 Grand Prix race so that the country can focus on its process of national dialogue.”

It has not yet been announced whether or not the event will be rescheduled but with 20 events planned for this year there are not that many possible free weekends to choose from. A date in late November between the Abu Dhabi and Brazilian events has been mentioned but nothing has been decided.