Mercedes’ George Russell (right), who is a director at the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, talks to RB driver Yuki Tsunoda (center) and McLaren driver Lando Norris after qualifying session for the Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix. (AP Photo)
Formula One drivers have had enough of being pulled up by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) for swearing on the team radio and in press conferences.
In an open letter the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) has asked the FIA to stop treating them like kids and also called on FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem to ‘consider his own tone and language’ when talking about F1 drivers.
In September Sulayem had compared the swearing by F1 drivers to that of rappers and had angered former world champion Lewis Hamilton who said there was a ‘racial element’ to the comment.
“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),” Sulayem had said.
The GPDA has now hit back at FIA’s policing of the words they use.
“There is a difference between swearing intended to insult others and more casual swearing, such as you might use to describe bad weather, or indeed an inanimate object such as an F1 car, or a driving situation. We urge the FIA president to consider his own tone and language when talking to our member drivers, or indeed about them, whether in a public forum or otherwise,” the letter stated.
The letter also told the FIA not to interfere in what drivers wear during a Grand Prix.
“Further, our members are adults. They do not need to be given instructions by the media about matters as trivial as the wearing of jewellery or underpants,” the GPDA letter said.
The FIA had also clamped down on drivers wearing jewelry and having piercings.
The drivers have also stated that they are unhappy at the FIA using fines as a punishment.
“For the past three years, we have called upon the FIA president to share the details and strategy regarding how the FIA’s financial fines are allocated and where the funds are spent. We have also relayed our concerns about the negative image financial fines bring to the sport,” the GPDA open letter said.
After the Singapore Grand Prix, Max Verstappen had said that his punishment for swearing was “ridiculous”.
Back then Vertsappen, who is a Red Bull driver, had been told by the FIA to do work for ‘public interest’ after he used poor language to describe the performance of his car.
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