F1 drivers satisfied after talks held with the FIA in Australia regarding the swearing sanction that was announced in the winter of 2024/25.
It all last year when Max Verstappen was sanctioned for swear word used during the official FIA press conference. The Dutchman didn’t take it well and ran his own media sessions by keeping it bare minimum in the official sessions. Charles Leclerc too faced the heat of the governing body.
The topic stretched to an extent that GPDA united to write a letter seeking answers and transparency from the FIA regarding where the fine money is used. This dragged on in the winter when the governing body revised the regulation to fine the drivers a larger sum across the championships.
They acted upon it in WRC and the rally drivers created their own ‘WoRDA’ to take on the FIA. Amid that, the F1 drivers got the chance to speak with the stewards to understand their side of things. Garry Connelly led the talks in Australia, where he explained what the circumstances will be for a fine.
The radio frustration will be out of it unless any driver is found to be insulting a particular person on the other end. The discussions were helpful as such that the F1 drivers are mostly satisfied with the answers and have moved on from the topic. The WRC drivers were to have their own dialogue as well.
Here’s what some of the F1 drivers said –
George Russell: “There’s definitely more clarity than we had in the previous months, which ultimately is what we ever asked for. That has come from FIA stewards, and as for the individuals within the FIA, I don’t think anybody ever had issues with as such. That was never a debate and I am glad that was sort of clarified and cleared up in Melbourne. Of course, when there are these major penalties over hanging or could be deployed at any point, there were some people little bit nervous about that. I think everybody do feel more at ease after conversations in Melbourne.”
Pierre Gasly: “I think it is clear, it’s obviously been discussed. My view on it is that we are professional, we want to be respectful, we want to be role models and we have to live up to the standards. And use some common sense because I think that’s completely understandable. At the same time, I do feel it is not always easy when you don’t speak your mother language in French, I learn English, I speak English but I am not as ease as much as when I do at French. I always relate to Yuki, I get very offended more than once when we were teammates together with the names he used to call me, but then I figured out. It is just that he didn’t have the vocabulary for it, he didn’t mean to be rude though.
“It is just understanding that for some people, you don’t always mean exactly what you say when you don’t speak your language. At the end of the day, this is what we got to deal with, I think we had a good conversation, we understand where we want to go and meet in the same place. It is just about the way you sanction about it which is a bit questionable and hopefully we can improve it. I understand where they are at. I know the environment of it. Hopefully, we can just come to a more understandable place in terms of fine and sanctions which does feel a bit harsh at the end of the day, if it doesn’t feel really needed.”
Esteban Ocon: “We got clarification on the topic in the drivers’ briefing. The FIA, the stewards, they came and basically specified on what was allowed, what was not allowed, and I think, honestly, it was a quite fair discussion that we had, very open. The FIA are not there to punish us for no reason, so if in the heat of the moment some bad words come between engineering and ourselves, that would be OK, basically. That’s what they said. But obviously if you insult someone, that’s a different case, but that’s normal.
“We have to behave, we are on air all the time, live TV. It’s important for us to be role models for the younger generation. But from what we had in Melbourne, the discussion, I think we were all quite scared before – I think now it’s quite clear and I think it’s quite fair, the discussion we had. I don’t know what the World Rally guys had. Probably very different answers to their questions, and that’s probably why they’re not happy. But on our side, in Formula 1, I think it’s much more clear now and quite fair.”
Carlos Sainz: “I think Garry was incredibly helpful in trying to explain to us the way the FIA was going to approach the situation and I really appreciate common sense and, this time, I must say common sense prevailed. And for me, it was very clear, very understandable, and we can hopefully move on from that.”
Max Verstappen: “Honestly, I prefer to stay out of all that, I just try to be a zen. Everyone, of course, expects me to be the first one to swear, I try not to be.”
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