Sixty British parliamentarians joined campaigners on Wednesday in urging Formula One to commission an independent inquiry into the human rights impact of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Rights groups said in an open letter to chief executive Stefano Domenicali that they also wanted him to seek "redress for those victims of abuses directly linked to your activities in Bahrain."
Signatories included Human Rights Watch and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD).
The Gulf kingdom is hosting the season-opening race, Bahrain's biggest and most-watched sporting event of the year, on Sunday.
Bahrain's 2011 race was called off due to civil unrest and the grand prix regularly draws criticism from rights campaigners who accuse the government of using the positive publicity to 'sportswash' the situation.