F1 asked to limit swearing over team radio in TV coverage: ‘We’re not rappers’
The FIA has asked Formula 1 to limit the amount of swearing – usually from drivers over team radio – broadcast on television coverage of races.
Formula One Management controls the broadcasting of grands prix around the world and usually bleeps out swear words on the official TV feed.
Yet FIA president Mohammed Ben Sualyem is looking to change the tone of the content to include less foul language and also called on drivers to monitor what they are saying in the heat of the moment.
“We have to differentiate between our sport – motorsport – and rap music,” Ben Sulayem told Autosport.
“We’re not rappers, you know. They say the F-word how many times per minute? We are not on that. That’s them and we are [us].”
Lewis Hamilton, speaking in Singapore on Thursday, was critical of Ben Sulayem’s remarks, adding they had a “racial element” to them.
In conversation with Autosport, Ben Sulayem continued: “I know, I was a driver. In the heat of the moment, when you think you are upset because another driver came to you and pushed you…when I used to drive in the dust [and something like that happened], I would get upset.
“But also, we have to be careful with our conduct. We need to be responsible people and now with 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?”
Three-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen has come under fire, particularly after a series of angry outbursts in Budapest in July, for his conduct over team radio before.
When asked about the broadcasting of foul language, Verstappen said in Singapore on Thursday: “A lot of people say a lot of bad things when they are full of adrenaline in other sports, it just doesn’t get picked up.
“I couldn’t even say the f-word... it’s not even that bad. What are we 5 year olds, 6 year olds?”
Verstappen has a 59-point lead to Lando Norris heading into this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, a race the Dutchman has never won.
