Last year's race, scheduled to be the 2011-opener, was cancelled after prolonged anti-government demonstrations and this year's race has been cast in doubt following a fresh outbreak of unrest in kingdom state.

Responding to the speculation, Ecclestone has insisted that the teams will be given the final say on whether or not to travel for the scheduled April 22 event.

"We've no way we can force people to go there," said Ecclestone. "We can't say 'you've got to go' - although they would be in breach of their agreement with us if they didn't go - but it doesn't help.

"Commercially they have to go, but whether they decide to or not is up to them. I've had no-one say anything other than 'we're going to be racing in Bahrain'. We've an agreement with the FIA that Bahrain is a round of the world championship, and we've a contract with the promoters, but I want to make clear it's nothing to do with finance."