Pressure is growing on the FIA to cancel - or at least postpone - the Bahrain GP after a team boss admitted that teams are "uncomfortable" travelling there.
The Sakhir circuit is due to stage the fourth race of the 2012 F1 season on the weekend of April 22, but the situation in the Gulf kingdom remains tense after fresh violence broke out over the weekend.
Seven police officers were injured when a home-made bomb exploded while protesters have also demonstrated against plans to host the grand prix in the troubled country.
The decision on whether the race goes ahead is firmly in the FIA's hands as more and more reports are emerging of teams who are unwilling to travel to Bahrain after this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.
According to Reuters, some teams have made contingency plans 'by routing personnel on return flights via Abu Dhabi, Dubai or Oman with alternative reservations for the last leg of the journey back from Shanghai'.
Meanwhile in an interview with the Guardian, an unnamed team boss, who claimed his 'views were representative of the other principals', said they don't want to go to the Middle East country next weekend.
"I feel very uncomfortable about going to Bahrain," he said.
"If I'm brutally frank, the only way they can pull this race off without incident is to have a complete military lockdown there. And I think that would be unacceptable, both for F1 and for Bahrain. But I don't see any other way they can do it."
He added: "We're all hoping the FIA calls it off. From a purely legal point of view, in terms of insurance and government advice, we are clear to go. But what we find worrying is that there are issues happening every day."
The team principal admitted they are still hopeful that the FIA will make the right decision, saying: "The best thing would be for the race to be postponed until later in the year, or even cancelled.
"But that is a decision that must be made by the FIA, FOM [Formula One Management] and the commercial rights holder. I never anticipated a decision being made until the week before China. I believe Jean Todt is in China, which is interesting."
Related link
'Bahrain GP about sports, not politics'
