McLaren remind Max Verstappen of ‘responsibilities’ after FIA swearing punishment

McLaren boss weighs in on Max Verstappen, FIA row

Speaking about the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, in which Verstappen had made a critical setup error that prevented him from joining in the battle at the front, the Dutch driver had referred to his car as “f**ked”, earning him a gentle admonishment from the press conference host Tom Clarkson.

Cursing and swearing in general have been on the agenda this season, with FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem having introduced a change to the International Sporting Code to include a line forbidding “any misconduct” – an open-ended Article that can be used as the grounds to investigate such matters.

Verstappen has been ordered to conduct some work in “public interest”, which will likely take the form of an educational seminar such as when his Red Bull team boss Christian Horner attended the stewards’ seminar in 2022, an annual training event for FIA stewards.

Verstappen has been less than impressed by the punishment, branding it “soft” and “silly”, and warning that being pulled up on matters he finds trivial will be taken into consideration when he’s evaluating his future in Formula 1.

Verstappen is one of the more vocal users of swear words amongst the drivers, who have largely come out in support of the reigning World Champion, and frequently has his radio messages ‘beeped’ out if he has inserted some colourful language.

But the reigning World Champion is far from the only guilty party, and an egregious example of the celebration of the use of ‘bad’ language as being the markings of a ‘character’ is how Netflix and Drive to Survive made a star of Guenther Steiner as the former Haas F1 team boss peppered his speech with expletives.

McLaren boss Stella has weighed in on the topic and said that, while he understands the use of bad language in the heat of the moment, there’s no reason for it to be used in general media conversation.

“I think I would differentiate between the swearing in while the drivers are driving their car – they are under the pressure of the competition, under the pressure of delivering laps,” he said.

“But things don’t go to plan. I think there’s an emotional content, which we should accept that, sometimes, it comes out in the form of having a bad word here and there, and I think the beeps, they sort of do the job from this point of view.

“When you are obviously outside the car, I think we all should make an attempt to be responsible and not forget that we are, as much as possible, role models. The popularity, the celebrity, it doesn’t only come with benefits – it comes with responsibilities, and we need to take any possible opportunity to pass good messages, healthy messages, because Formula 1 is so popular that you can influence a wide range of people.

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“If we can influence, why not influence for the good? So I think even if a bad word could look like a small element, I think, if we don’t take this opportunity, it’s a missed opportunity to pass just even from the quality of the language, the respect in the language, the respect for competitors.

“So I think enforcing is a good thing. Ideally, all competitors enforce them for themselves because of their own policies or their own standards.”

Cultural factors may be playing a part in this ongoing storm in a teacup, with Verstappen hailing from a country in which the use of ‘bad’ language is more widely accepted – this attitude being at odds with the more conservative media in the United Arab Emirates (where President Ben Sulayem is from) and the UK.

Verstappen has been less than impressed by what’s going on, revealing that the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association has reacted with mirth when he revealed his punishment to them, and said: “I think it’s just the wording, the ruling that the sport is heading into – for me personally, with these kind of things, I know, of course, you can’t insult people. That’s quite straightforward and I think no one really wants to do that.

“But it’s all a bit too soft. Really, honestly, it’s silly. It’s super silly what we’re dealing with.”

Such restrictions being placed upon the drivers rob personalities of being authentic, Verstappen said, explaining: “If you can’t really be yourself to the fullest, then it’s better not to speak.”