Max Verstappen fired back at the FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, after he called for drivers to watch their swearing on the team radios by insisting they are not rappers in a bizarre comment.
The 62-year-old called for the 20 racers on the Formula 1 grid to watch their language when they’re upset, following an increasing amount of bleeped out expletives live on the world broadcast feed.
His argument, centred around how families would feel regarding the language, included a strange comparison to rap music artists during which the Emirati appeared to single them out for no apparent reason.
But the world championship leader was not in a mind to listen to the motorsport official ahead of the 2024 Singapore GP at the Marina Bay Circuit as Verstappen hit back at the FIA president by suggesting his argument is childish.
“I guess the world is changing a bit, but I think it already just starts with not broadcasting it,” Verstappen told members of the media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “Or not giving the option for people to hear it in general.
“There’s a lot of apps where people can listen to the radios and stuff. You have to probably limit this or have a bit of a delay that you can censor out a few things. That will help a lot more than putting ban on drivers
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“Because, for example, I couldn’t even say the f-word. I mean, it’s not even that bad, right? The car was not working, then the car is fu**ed. And then excuse me for the language of it… Come on, what are we? Five year olds or six year olds?”
What did the FIA president say to annoy Verstappen?
The debate concerning driver language has been a long-standing one in F1 since it began to grow in popularity and attracted a younger audience, with Sebastian Vettel famously interjecting at a press conference in 2019 to point out the language used in other sport is no better.
But the difference between them and F1 is that drivers have a microphone attached to them, allowing the broadcasters to listen to their every word to add to the drama of a race weekend if someone users colourful language to describe a situation.
And as the discussion continues to grow it seems the FIA is aligning against drivers, with Ben Sulayem calling on them to mind their language as well as suggesting they will require broadcasts to restrict the amount of radio messages played.
“I mean, we have to differentiate between our sport – motorsport – and rap music,” Ben Sulayem told Motorsport.com. “We’re not rappers. They say the F-word how many times per minute? We are not on that. That’s them and we are [us].”
“We have to be careful with our conduct, we need to be responsible people. And now with the technology, everything is going live and everything is going to be recorded. At the end of the day, we have to study that to see: do we minimise what is being said publicly?
“Because imagine you are sitting with your children and watching the race and then someone is saying all of this dirty language. I mean, what would your children or grandchildren say? What would you teach them if that is your sport?”
“We can and we are [limiting radios]. We are the ones who actually approved more talk [on the broadcast]. But we have rules, and the rules are there for the benefit of the sport and the rules are there to be policed and to be respected also.”
Ben Sulayem became president of the FIA at the end of the 2021 F1 season and he instantly led the inquest into the controversial Abu Dhabi GP, and since then the controversies have not waned.
A plethora of incidents relating to the 2023 year kicked off with the resurfacing of sexist comments made by the boss dated from 2001 appearing, before he was investigated for reportedly influencing the results of the Saudi Arabian GP.
He was also claimed to have attempted to stop the certification of track for the return of the Las Vegas GP on the grounds it was unsafe, leading to another investigation from the FIA Compliance Department.
The FIA president was also slammed for launching an investigation into Susie Wolff, wife of Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, following claims the F1 Academy director had passed him confidential information. It was publicly denied by all teams.
