In the end, it came to a decision based on raised hands at the World Motorsport Council meeting in Barcelona to decide the fate of the Bahrain Grand Prix – and even that was something the FIA struggled to organise properly.

The Bahrain Grand Prix was reinstated to the formula 1 race calendar, and any slight grip the sport had on reality was lost as it floated away in a sea of inconsequential actions and social irresponsibility to a place where human rights are merely lose paving stones on the road to profit.

In a world where sport and politics are often uneasy bedfellows, there can be few more starker reminders that money is the ultimate decision maker in modern sports than the decision of formula 1 to enter into the war-torn state – no matter how hard Bernie Eccelstone protests.

As the WMSC sat down to make their decision on Friday Al Jazeera released a story describing the galling reality in Bahrain – rubber bullets and tear gas fired to supress protestors speaking out against the government, deaths caused by exposure to tear gas explained away as a life ended by natural causes; the timing of the story with the meeting would have been laughable had the content not been so galling.

In a place that was recently declared as the 123rd (out of 153) least peaceful countries in the world, it gives some indication of just how bloody the waters that formul1 1 are stepping into – the fact that the state of emergency that had been placed on Bahrain for three months was ended conveniently early in time for the meeting seemed lost amidst talk of “healing” and unifying”.

The FIA have already peddled the almost sickening line that the race is designed to heal the national rift; that the sport can be a force for good. Even if their intentions were pure (which is highly unlikely) the race is doing no such thing, it only serves to add a layer of legitimacy to the regime the Bahraini people are speaking out against.

What was perhaps most worrying of all was the apparent lack of social conscious shown by formula 1. Mark Webber, eloquent yet to the point as ever, seemed to be the lone dissenting voice as teams, owners and principals bickered inconsequentially about the merits of a December finish to the season. To hear Ross Brawn speak only of the teams objecting to the late finish was enough to make you reconsider following formula 1.

“The backlash has begun and the FIA have already come in for heavy criticism for their decision – whether this is enough to initiate change is unlikely, that can only come from within.”

The fact that Max Mosely actually emerged from the whole debacle looking like the man with morals after speaking out against hosting the race should have been enough to make the FIA’s minds up for them.

The one ray of light from this sorry situation came as a petition carrying more than 300,000 signatures asking the likes of Red Bull and McLaren to boycott the race showed that at least f1 fans have an ounce of humanity, even if the bosses whose pockets they line do not.

The backlash has begun and the FIA in particular have already come in for heavy criticism for their decision – whether this is enough to initiate change is unlikely, that can only come from within.

Formula 1 has never been in touch with reality, and that has always been part of its appeal. As the spectator bought into the image of the playboy racer, the sprayed champagne and the bikini-clad babes – the fact that the Monaco Grand Prix with its gaudy veneer is considered the jewel in the crown speaks louder than any words can – the sport was allowed to live in its own bubble as a form of escapism.

Now the bubble has been pricked; Friday’s decision was made in the full knowledge of what was happening across the Middle East. Formula 1 is now complicit and directly involved in a deadly political conflict because of choices of its own making, and if it ends up with blood in its hands, there will be no one else to blame.

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