Bahrain set to be officially removed

After a week of controversy about the FIA's decision to reinstate the Bahrain GP and move the Indian race to December 11, Ecclestone said in Montreal on Friday that he expected a final change to the calendar to reverse that plan be made in the next few days.

When asked by AUTOSPORT about the latest situation regarding Bahrain, with FIA president Jean Todt having asked Ecclestone to submit a new calendar, Ecclestone said: "We will be back to normal.

"We will put out a request to the World Motor Sport Council in the next few days. I sent something this morning, so it will be quick."

Although team bosses have been critical of the way the sport's chiefs have handled the Bahrain affair, with the sport having been on the receiving end of major criticism about the decision to race in the Gulf island state amid ongoing political trouble, Ecclestone said he did not see a problem with what had happened.

"What was negative?" he responded. "I don't know about that. I haven't read anything. I don't read the newspapers, to be honest.

"The truth of the matter is that we put the calendar together, and the teams race on the calendar. The only thing there was that we were trying to help Bahrain, who have been helpful to F1, and we were trying to stay there as long as we could.

"I hoped we could get it sorted. I don't know if there is peace there or not - the FIA sent someone out to check and they said it would be all okay, but the teams had different information. They have the right to say they don't want to change the calendar."

When asked if he agreed with Todt's suggestion in a letter to FOTA that he should take responsibility for the affair because it was up to him to sort out the calendar, he said: "Absolutely. 100%. Of trying to help Bahrain? Yes, that is for sure. I was hoping everything would be fine."