Formula One stars face hefty fines, costly points penalties or even a one month suspension for swearing under updated guidelines by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile.
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The governing body of motorsport released an updated version of their regulations on Wednesday that focused strongly on swearing and other sporting code violations.
Misconduct is the key term used in Article 12 of the guidelines, which the FIA defines 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”.
An F1 driver’s first offence will receive a €40,000 fine, while a second offence will double the fine to €80,000 and incur a suspended one-month ban.
A third offence is where the FIA will really crack the whip however, with a driver to be handed a €120,000, “plus 1-month suspension plus deduction of Championship points”.
This spells as potentially troublesome news for the likes of world champion Max Verstappen after he used a profanity during a press conference at the Singapore Grand Prix last year.
“As soon as I went into qualifying, I knew the car was f***ed,” Verstappen said when asked about his struggles at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
He was ordered to complete a “work of public interest” as punishment, which he did in Rwanda last month, and in protest, the German limited his answers in following press conferences conducted by the FIA.
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Verstappen gave more detailed responses in his own interviews with journalists, and it became an ongoing saga throughout the season.
The latest announcement is sure to be unwelcomed by Verstappen who even threatened to leave Formula One last year because of his displeasure with the way the FIA are running the sport.
“I mean, these kinds of things definitely decide my future as well. When you can’t be yourself, you have to deal with these kinds of silly things,” he said in September.
“Now I’m at a stage of my career that I don’t want to be dealing with this all the time. It’s really tiring.”
In Mexico in October, Verstappen also called stewards “stupid idiots” over the radio after he was handed two 10-second penalties after a first-lap collision with Australian Oscar Piastri.
Such comments could land him, or any driver, in hot water this season.
The FIA will implement similar penalties to the swearing provisions 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 motorsport and on the values defended by the FIA” and “any public incitement to violence or hatred”.
The governing body also retained the same fines for “the general making and display of political, religious and personal statements or comments notably in violation of the general principle of neutrality promoted by the FIA under its Statutes, unless previously approved in writing by the FIA for International Competitions, or by the relevant ASN for National Competitions within their jurisdiction”.
They also mandated that drivers make a full public apology for their remarks and retract their comments.
There has also been a crack down on how official ceremonies are conducted.
Harsher penalties will be in place for any “failure to comply with the instructions of the FIA regarding the appointment and participation of persons during official ceremonies at any Competition counting towards a FIA Championship”.
A first offence will receive a €60,000 fine, with a €120,000 fine for another offence “plus suspension of access to Reserved Area(s) of the event for the next event” – which can include everything from the track, paddock, parc ferme, and media zones.
A further offence will then receive a €180,000 fine plus a six-month suspension from the defined reserved areas.
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