The Formula One World Championship has been heating up, with Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s recent struggles coinciding with Lando Norris and McLaren’s surge up the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings. However, amidst the on-track drama, a sudden crackdown on swearing by the sport’s governing body, the FIA, has sparked an unexpected controversy.
At a time when rivalries could be blossoming and verbal jabs exchanged between championship contenders, the FIA’s decision to punish defending champion Max Verstappen for swearing in a press conference has instead united the drivers.
On September 19, ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, Verstappen used an expletive to describe his car’s performance at the previous race in Azerbaijan, where he finished fifth. Less than 24 hours later, the Dutchman was summoned to the stewards, where he was issued with a punishment for using language deemed “coarse, rude, or may cause offense.” He will be expected to “accomplish some work of public interest,” the details of which are yet to be defined.
Verstappen’s subsequent second-place finish at the Singapore Grand Prix was overshadowed by his protest against the FIA’s decision. He remained largely silent and gave monosyllabic answers to questions in the FIA-sanctioned press conference after qualifying. When asked to elaborate on the improvements made to his car between the Azerbaijan and Singapore Grands Prix, he replied, “No, I might get fined.”
In interviews outside the FIA-organized press conference, Verstappen chose to speak freely. When asked if such altercations with the FIA would make him reconsider his future in the sport, the 26-year-old was unequivocal: “For sure, yeah.”
“These kinds of things definitely decide my future as well,” he said. “When you can’t be yourself, you have to deal with these kinds of silly things. Now I’m at a stage of my career that I don’t want to be dealing with this all the time. It’s really tiring.”
The FIA’s crackdown on swearing stems from a statement made by president Mohammed Ben Sulayem a week before the Singapore race. Ben Sulayem said the body would be more stringent in ensuring that drivers cut down on the number of times they swear in the media during a race weekend. Ironically, Ben Sulayem’s choice of words drew criticism.
“We have to differentiate between our sport – motorsport – and rap music,” Ben Sulayem said. “We’re not rappers, you know. They say the f-word how many times per minute? We are not on that. That’s them and we are [us].”
In response, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton accused Ben Sulayem of using stereotypical bias informed by a “racial element” in citing rap artists.
