Ferrari have political message with their choice to vaccinate team members

In recent days there has been some discussion around the F1 paddock about whether or not team members should be vaccinated. The authorities in Bahrain have offered this option to the teams, but Formula 1 doesn't want to give the impression that they are jumping the queue and therefore have not made vaccination mandatory.

Most teams, who also don't think it sends the right message to get vaccinated en mass, while people in Europe and elsewhere in the world are still waiting for a vaccine, leave their team members free to choose to get vaccinated. Ferrari, on the other hand, is trying to promote the choice to do so a bit more, reports Craig Slater on Sky Sports.

Discussion around vaccination is slightly different in Italy

"They say that it is unlikely that especially the young people among their engineers and mechanics in Italy are vaccinated. [In Italy far fewer people are vaccinated than in Britain] Giving a green light to their team members to be vaccinated they see as an opportunity to stress the importance of vaccination. They are thus taking a stance against the doubts that exist in some quarters about vaccination," says Slater.

It's not entirely coincidental that it's Ferrari that takes this position. There is a strong anti-vaxxer movement in Italy. The willingness to be vaccinated is much lower there than in the UK and other parts of Europe.