Max Verstappen continues to denounce the FIA’s policy towards swearing, which he considers far too infantilizing. The Red Bull driver gets annoyed because he does not understand the intentions of the federation on this subject, nor the objective of the commissioners in punishing the drivers for this.
“It’s something I don’t like in F1” Verstappen said. “Of course I understand that you can’t swear in a press conference, but it was language, it came out quickly.”
“We all grew up like that, people sitting there too. And some people say, ‘My five-year-old grandson watches that too.’ When I was 5, I was also sitting between adults who were swearing. My parents didn’t swear at me, of course.”
“But what do you think I said at school? You want to act like a harsh child towards others. That’s part of it. Of course, you have to watch your language, but being punished like a child makes me makes me wonder what we are doing in this sport.”
George Russell doesn’t understand the FIA either, but it’s more on the political level that the Mercedes F1 driver is worried. He had already declared in Abu Dhabi that the purge within the federation made him wonder who would be the next person to be removed by the president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
Questioned again on this subject, the Briton denounces the dismissal of the compliance manager, Paolo Basarri, and questions the consequences on the federation and the power that this gives to Ben Sulayem, who should regain responsibility for compliance, which he will share with the president of the FIA senate.
“I don’t really know what’s going through his head, but like we said the last time we had this discussion, I wonder what’s next. I didn’t really expect that, two weeks later, it’s something that seems pretty serious.” Russell said.
“I’m not really sure what this change in compliance governance means. I don’t even know exactly what it is, but it seems like a big deal. And I was quite surprised that it was say ‘two weeks later, there’s something else’. Will there be something else in two weeks?
“I think it would be great for all of us to understand what the aim and objective of the FIA is. And I think it would be great for us to understand, if the president could express to us his objective with the FIA and can -maybe we could see it from his point of view then we’ll have a better understanding.”
