Down the Wing

In case you haven’t heard, the FIA released updates to their rules for the upcoming season, revealing heavy sanctions and possible consequences for drivers who repeatedly swear or—and this feels important—speak out against the FIA.

We can chuckle and make jokes about Max Verstappen being issued community service and Charles Leclerc being chastised by the principal after a presser, but these new rules aren’t simply laughable. They’re an overreach by a governing body that has slowly and methodically been removing autonomy from teams and drivers to transition them into mindless robots behind a wheel.

The “Swearing” Rule

They are defining misconduct as “the general use of language (written or verbal), gesture and/or sign that is offensive, insulting, coarse, rude or abusive and might reasonably be expected or be perceived to be coarse or rude or to cause offence, humiliation or to be inappropriate”, “assaulting (elbowing, kicking, punching, hitting, etc.)”, and “incitement to do any of the above”.

The consequences for misconduct are fines… and possible suspension and points deduction. The base fine is a €10,000 for the first offence; however, for F1 drivers the fines are multiplied by 4 (clearly a Lando Norris conspiracy). Second offence is €20,000/€80,000 fine and a suspended one-month suspension.

Any further offences result in a €30,000/€120,000 fine and a one-month suspension plus a deduction of Championship points.

In Formula 1, adults come together to put themselves in incredibly dangerous situations for the love of the sport. One mistake could be deadly, and their focus should be solely on arriving at the end of the race without inchident or, at least, without a major inchident.

Their mind and focus should not be taken up with thoughts of what might happen if their emotions make them say a word that some may deem “inappropriate”.

Whilst I agree that the drivers are role models for thousands upon thousands of children throughout the world, they’re not the ones meant to parent them. Parents can monitor their own children and should be able to tell them when it’s appropriate or not to use these words.

There’s no need—especially given the high-stress situations they find themselves under—to police drivers’ speech to this extent. I understand the rule in the F1 Press Conferences, to an extent, but in the car, it should be unenforceable.

Additional Rules & Punishments

But wait! There’s more! Similar punishments might be given for “any words, deeds or writings that have caused moral injury or loss to the FIA, its bodies, its members or its executive officers, and more generally on the interest of motor sport and on the values defended by the FIA” and “any public incitement to violence or hatred”. The last bit is fair, but with such a vague description, where do they draw the line?

For instance, drivers have protested rule changes in the past, and seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton has spoken out directly about discriminatory and racist undertones of comments made (even by the FIA president).

If his fans decide to protest, make a statement or digitally and angrily respond because of his statement, would Hamilton then face punishment? Because FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has shown both through actions and words that he doesn’t like to be challenged. Would he view the actions of fans as “violence” or “hatred”? And more importantly, would he blame Hamilton for them?

Ben Sulayem is creating an unsustainable rule in order to exert control and power over the drivers who are the sole reason fans watch the sport.

If these rules and punishments begin impacting the competitive nature of the sport or impacting celebrated drivers, I think Ben Sulayem and the FIA will absolutely be seeing the “loss to the FIA”, not from the drivers’ actions but from their own.

What do you think? Do you support the bans and new rules?