Deputy team principal Bob Fernley was preparing to address his staff on
Thursday night at the team hotel after being seen leaving the circuit with
John Yates, the former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police who
is now a special advisor to Bahrain’s security services.
“We just want to make sure the right precautions are being taken,” Fernley
said. “Up until now we’ve been quite free with everything, but there are
more protests in the next few days, so what we want is for them (team
members) to travel as close as possible together.
“We don’t want our guys getting in a position or a place where they shouldn’t
be, so we will also re-route accordingly.
“For us, it’s not about having armed people, we don’t have that, but we do
have trackers on every vehicle just in case one loses its way.
“We have also decided when we go back at night I will go back to their hotel
with the last crew member to make sure they have all returned safely before
I go back to mine.”
Fernley added that there was “no chance whatsoever” of pulling out of the
race, having accepted that the incident was unfortunate.
“Like other teams we’ve had requests from MPs to withdraw from the race, and
I’ve written back to them,” he said. “Formula One is coming to Bahrain, it
can be argued it has brought the world’s press in, it has highlighted some
of the issues, and now it is up to them to debate that.”
Circuit chairman Zayed Alzayani admitted that there would “probably” be more
violence. “I can’t comment on the degree of violence, whether it will be
more or not – I don’t have that kind of information.
“I don’t think they will be within the track or close to the track, and I
think they will be handled in the right way.”
Alzayani said his advice to fans was “be vigilant”. “I would give them advice
to enjoy the weekend,” he said. “Don’t be too worried and too distracted not
to enjoy the weekend.”
Hulkenberg said that would be difficult. “We shouldn’t have been put in this
position,” he said. “It is obviously not right that that sort of stuff
happens. We are here to race. The F1 business is about entertainment and
these sort of things should not really be happening to us.
“Whether it is right or not I don’t really know. It’s difficult to say. I am
not a politician.
“It is not good that we have to worry about it: that is the way it is now and
let’s see and hope that the rest of the weekend is good and calm.”
His team-mate, Briton Paul di Resta, admitted it was “an uncomfortable
situation” but added that he supported the FIA’s decision to press ahead
with the race.
That was the stock line that most drivers and teams took, with not one of the
five world champions currently in the sport really addressing the issue.
Lewis Hamilton claimed not to have heard about the Force India incident while
his McLaren team mate Jenson Button refused to discuss it.
“I’m not going to get into the details of it. You’re here interviewing me as a
driver,” Button said. “I’m going to talk about motor racing.”
Intriguingly, Red
Bull declined to put their second driver, Mark Webber, up for
interview at all. The Australian has been one of the few drivers to speak
about Bahrain openly.
His team-mate, the world champion Sebastian Vettel, will probably wish he
hadn’t spoken. “It’s not a big problem and I’m happy once we start testing
tomorrow then we worry about the stuff that really matters — tyre
temperatures, cars ” he smiled, making it clear he was joking.
Formula One was crossing its fingers on Thursday night that the joke does not
turn sour.