In Bahrain TGI Friday should really be called TGI Thursday. The weekend here in Manama begins on a Thursday and runs to Saturday night. They go back to work on Sunday. We went to the TGI Friday restaurant because it was next to our hotel. It was something familiar. One might say comforting, but we don’t really need comfort. Manama is fine. Yes, there is trouble out there if you want to find it, but the vast majority of the population is going on doing what they like to do on Thursday and Friday nights.

It never even entered our heads that TGIF would not sell alcohol. When you think about the brand, one of the brand values is booze. But not in Bahrain. When in Rome do as the Romans do, even if a part of me screams that a non-alcoholic mojito is as disappointing as Halle Berry walking into a James Bond movie wearing a burka.

This is the weirdest weekend that we have had in Formula 1 in the 25 years I have been covering the sport. Everyone has a different opinion and everyone thinks that they are right – even more than normally.

The fundamental problem, when you boil it all down, is that the Bahrain government created the problem last year with its disgraceful handling of the initial protests for more democracy in the kingdom. Naturally they want to go back to how things used to be, but finding a way back is not easy because of the troubles that have been stirred up. They are right to say that there is a difference between protest and rioting, but you reap what you sow. The key now is to re-establish the rule of law and rebuild trust between the communities.

Formula 1 is in Bahrain because it is contracted to be in Bahrain. The FIA and the Formula One group are contracted to each other. The Formula One group is contracted to the Bahrain government. The teams are contracted to the Formula One group. The drivers are contracted to the teams. The cynic in me says that it is just as insane as the web of treaties that caused World War I, when it was utterly illogical for England and Germany to go to war because a relatively obscure Austrian prince and his wife had been shot dead in Serbia.

The government of Bahrain is trying to use the race for its own political ends, using a slogan of “Unif1ed — One Nation in Celebration,” hoping that the race will draw the people of the country together and also show off Bahrain as being peaceful and open for business. One can understand that attitude, even if one is appalled by the bad things that were done a year ago and highlighted in the Bassiouni Report. The government says reforms are happening, the opposition says they are not happening fast enough. The protesters and those behind them know that if they protest against F1 they will get the international media coverage they want. They have been stuck in the shadows for most of the last 12 months, because of Egypt, Libya and Syria. Thanks to F1 Bahrain is now on the front pages of newspapers across the world.

It is ironic that the only thing that the two sides seem to agree on is that Formula 1 is a useful vehicle for them to send out their political messages.

The FIA statutes state that that the federation shall “refrain from manifesting racial, political or religious discrimination in the course of its activities and from taking any action in this respect”. No doubt lawyers can argue over the meaning of that and it can be applied in different ways, but for me there is a political situation in Bahrain and both sides are exploiting the Grand Prix. The argument that F1 has to go because of its contracts sounds too much like the Nuremberg Defence to me. It is not enough to say “Befehl ist Befehl” (which loosely translates to “I was only following orders”). The courts in Nuremburg found that such a defence was not enough to escape punishment, but could be deemed as a mitigating factor. Thus everyone with any responsibility in F1 must share the blame, because no-one has stood up and said no. The FIA made the decision and made it very clear in its statement that it understood the responsibility it was undertaking.

“The FIA ensures that any event forming part of an FIA World Championship is organised in compliance with the FIA Statutes and the relevant Sporting and Technical Regulations, and that the safety of the public, officials, drivers and teams is secured at all times during an event,” it said. “The FIA must make rational decisions based on the information provided to us by the Bahraini authorities and by the Commercial Rights Holder. In addition we have endeavoured to assess the ongoing situation in Bahrain.”

My view is that Formula 1 should not be here at all because it is being used by both sides in the political conflict in Bahrain. The world’s media has whipped up a storm, but it is an exaggerated view of what is actually happening on the ground. The only danger that F1 seems to be in is the possibility that its people will get caught in the crossfire between extremists and the forces of law and order.

That was predictable as well. If one wants to draw a parallel, it is as if F1 had wandered out into No Man’s Land on the Western Front and started to play cricket between the front lines in the hope that this would help to end the war. The decision was made and F1 is now living with that decision. Neither F1 nor Bahrain is going to come out of the experience better off. The only real question now is how much damage can be done to their respective reputations in the next 36 hours.

Come Monday the media storm will be over, the newspapers will turn away from Bahrain and focus back on Syria, or a celebrity divorce… F1 reporters will stop being told to be more than they are.

Bahrain will drop out of the spotlight and get on with trying to find a solution.