FIA President requested to ‘consider his own tone’ by F1 GPDA
7th November 2024The Grand Prix Drivers Association has requested the FIA President, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, to consider his tone as the association releases a statement around swearing.
Feature image credit: Red Bull Content Pool
On Thursday, the GPDA released a statement on its new Instagram account with a post which called out the FIA – and its current President – in the process.
It discusses a range of issues with the FIA such as swearing and wearing jewellery whilst looking for transparency with where the funds, paid in monetary fines, are being spent.
“As with the case with every sport, competitors must abid by the referee’s decision, whether they like it or not, indeed whether they agree with it or not,” the statement began. “That is how sport works. The Drivers (our members) are no different, and fully understand that.
“Our members are professional drivers, racing in Formula 1, the pinnacle of international motorsports. They are the gladiators and every racing weekend they put on a great how for the fans.”
Swearing was a big issue with the statement which followed on from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen being slapped with community service for saying his car was ‘f****ed.’
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc also fell foul of this and was slapped with a €10,000 fine for swearing in Mexico with half of it suspended on the condition of no further instances.
The statement asked the FIA President to ‘consider his tone’ as he was previously under the spotlight for describing the drivers as ‘rappers.’
View this post on Instagram
The statement continued:
“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 taking 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 via the media, about matters as trivial as the wearing of jewellery and underpants.”
The final issue in the statement revolved around the fines drivers are given and the GPDA has requested transparency on where the money is being spent.
The association believes driver monetary fines are not appropriate in the sport and brought into question the potential ‘negative image’ the fines bring to Formula 1.
“The GPDA has, on countless occasions, expressed its view that Driver monetary fines are not appropriate for our sport,” the GPDA added. “For the past three years, we have called upon the FIA President to share the details and strategy regarding how the FIA’s financial fines are allocated and where the funds are spent.
“We have also relayed our concerns about the negative image financial fines bring to the sport.
“We once again request that the FIA President provides financial transparency and direct, open dialogue with us. All stakeholders (FIA, F1, the teams and the GPDA) should jointly determine how and where the money is spent for the benefit of our sport.
“The GPDA wishes to collaborate in a constructive way with all of the stakeholders, including the FIA President, in order to promote our great sport for the benefit of everyone who works in it, pays for it, watches it and indeed loves it. We are playing our part.”
Apexmotorsports.co.uk has reached out to the FIA for a comment.
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
