F1 Pundit declares FIA trying to ‘silence’ drivers with latest crackdown
Veteran racing driver Tom Coronel lashed out at the FIA for wanting to turn F1 drivers into marketing puppets.
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Mohammed Ben Sulayem and Max Verstappen (via IMAGO)
The Formula 1 grid has been at a standoff with the FIA in the past year. The sports governing body has doubled down on dissent amongst drivers. Now, Dutch driver Tom Coronel has slammed the FIA’s latest efforts in policing drivers.
The FIA has made a big change for 2025. F1 drivers can face up to a race ban for criticizing any actions taken by the stewards or the sports governing body. This has divided opinions with F1 presenter Martin Brundle expressing his support to this latest rule.
On the other hand, Tom Coronel claimed that the FIA, led by Mohammed Ben Sulayem was trying to silence drivers as much as possible. Moreover, he reckoned that this was essentially taking emotion out of the sport. Coronel hit out at the sports governing body for gagging drivers and making them into nothing more than just marketing puppets.
They obviously want to silence the drivers as much as possible. That’s what’s behind it. I feel the whole emotion is being taken out. You are no longer allowed to have an opinion at all, you just become a marketing puppet. You are being gagged.
Tom Coronel told RacingNews365
FIA’s swearing ban ‘completely ridiculous’
F1 drivers are banned from swearing in the paddock, something that led to Max Verstappen’s controversial penalty. Tom Coronel labeled this ban as ‘completely ridiculous.’ He insisted that this was leading to emotions being drawn out of the sport entirely. Coronel reckoned that he simply couldn’t understand this situation.
It is absolutely, completely ridiculous that emotion is being pulled out of the sport. That’s just what makes the sport. I don’t understand it at all.
Tom Coronel noted
Certainly, FIA’s latest ruling will only make things worse in the coming weeks. Although, no driver has commented on this change so far. It remains to be seen if someone like Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton speak out against the ever-increasing restrictions on drivers.
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Armaan Agarwal
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