Ooft, F1 drivers have hit back at the FIA president over swearing

Blimey. The Grand Prix Drivers Association - the body that represents all 20 F1 drivers and of which George Russell is a director - has launched a withering public riposte over the recent storm in a teacup that is swearing in F1.

It all began in September when FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem voiced his displeasure about, er, some choice language used over team radios, telling Autosport “we’re not rappers”.

Lewis Hamilton later condemned those comments for their “racial element” in the build-up to the Singapore Grand Prix, where Max Verstappen was ordered to “accomplish some work of public interest” as punishment for swearing in reference to his car.

That led the three-time champ to effectively boycott official FIA press conferences at the race by giving only short answers in protest, before speaking to the media at length on his own terms.

Then at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix last weekend, Charles Leclerc was fined €10,000 for letting the F-bomb slip in a press conference, for which he immediately apologised.

And now, it appears the drivers have had enough. “Our members are professional drivers, racing in Formula 1, the pinnacle of international motorsport,” read a statement posted on Instagram. “They are gladiators and every racing weekend they put on a great show for the fans.

“With regards to swearing, 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 a Formula 1 car, or a driving situation.

“We urge the FIA President to also consider his own tone and language when talking to our member drivers, or indeed about them, whether in a public forum or otherwise.

“Further, our members are adults, they do not need to be given instructions via the media, about matters as trivial as the wearing of jewellery and underpants.”

That’s a reference to what the drivers see as other examples of unnecessary meddling: in 2022 the FIA clamped down on the wearing of jewellery in the cockpit, and insisted drivers must wear fireproof undies as per the regulations.

The GPDA has also used its statement to call for more transparency over how the FIA calculates fines and where the money is spent, citing the “countless occasions” it has argued that “monetary fines are not appropriate for our sport”.

This has all ******* got a bit out of ******* hand, hasn’t it?