11/01/2012
NEWS STORY
Despite the FIA's poor handling of the Bahrain situation in 2011, Ferrari insists that it will look to the sport's governing body for guidance this year.
While it is a matter of record that the teams can rarely agree on anything, in one area they can be relied upon to act as one... sitting on the fence.
While the teams may well have their opinions on what's happening in the real world outside Planet Paddock it is impossible to get them to share them, certainly on the record. Instead, rather than offend anyone, particularly those with the money, they stick their fingers in their collective ears, hum a tune and hope it all goes away.
With Bahrain just three months away, the Gulf state is dominating F1 headlines again, with Human Rights groups calling for a boycott of the event and organisers insisting all is well.
Asked for his team's view on the situation, Stefano Domenicali faithfully followed the F1 narrative.
"I heard that there are a lot of rumours about the situation but we need to rely on the competent authorities," he told reporters at Madonna di Campiglio. "We have the international federation (FIA), we have the commercial rights holder, we have relations with that country and we cannot rely on different social media and information.
"We need to be very cool and realistic about that," he continued. "Because otherwise we are just dealing in speculation, which cannot help the country because in different countries there can be situations that can be used in different ways."
When asked if the FIA can be trusted to make the right decision, especially after last year's debacle when its own report was totally discredited, he said: "I think we need to trust them. Maybe the experience will give a different approach to that and the information will be more accurate."