Will FIA be forced to take back swear ban after Max Verstappen fiasco?
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem is on the backfoot after Max Verstappen's swear ban fiasco at Singapore GP.
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Mohammed Ben Sulayem and Max Verstappen (via IMAGO)
The FIA shocked the paddock during the start of the Singapore GP weekend when it announced that drivers can no longer swear on team radio. This was met by backlash from the entire grid. Max Verstappen even went head-to-head with the sports governing body over the course of the weekend.
The three-time world champion was penalized for swearing during the FIA press conference. Max Verstappen was furious and decided to stick to only one-word responses for the rest of the weekend. While drivers including Lewis Hamilton defended the Dutchman.
As the sport heads to the US GP in a couple of weeks, drivers will continue to express their discontent to the sports governing body. With pressure mounting on FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem could be forced to backtrack his decision.
FIA could run out of options with swearing ban
The sports governing body has not had a single driver support its decision on the swearing ban. F1 drivers express their raw emotions on the team radio. It is difficult for one to hold back on swear words just for the broadcast.
Rather, FIA should not broadcast such radio messages on the live feed. This would act as a much better way to filter out swear words instead of forcing drivers to self censor. It is virtually impossible for Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton to always think twice before saying anything on the radio while racing at over two hundred miles per hour.
It seems that Mohammed Ben Sulayem is determined that he does not want to back down. However, with public opinion going against this decision, the FIA President might ultimately be forced to do a u-turn on this controversial call. It remains to be seen how things pan out in the coming weeks.
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Armaan Agarwal
(2329 Articles Published)