FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has been called out online after he criticised Formula One drivers for swearing on team radio during races.
F1 radios have long been a fan favourite way of following the action on race day, with the messages between driver and engineer providing a great insight into race strategy.
The team radios also provide an amusing human element to the broadcast, with fans able to hear crude messages and insults the drivers may through in during the heat of the moment.
In order for fans to be able to fully follow how a driver is feeling in the cockpit, these X-rated radios are included in the broadcast but any expletives are censored.
Most fans would agree when you’re traveling at 200mph with danger around every corner it’s a fairly acceptable time to swear, but FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem seems to have a different idea.
“I mean, we have to differentiate between our sport – motorsport – and rap music,” he told Motorsport.com.
“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].
“We have to be careful with our conduct. We need to be responsible people. And now with the 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?”
Despite all 20 drivers partaking in these explicit radio messages, it’s fair to say the comments may have been directed more towards Max Verstappen who even annoyed his own race engineer due to his radio antics at the Austrian Grand Prix.Fans have been left disappointed with Ben Sulayem’s comments and have taken to social media to voice their concern at the potential censorship of radios.
One fan commented: “Now I want all the drivers to increase their swearing just to spite them”
Another added: “If I had to drive a machine at 300+ kph while battling other people doing the same I would swear at least 50 times per minute. It’s not a Sunday drive along the coast.”
A third replied: “Well, then you are muting the real passion of that driver at the given moment. If they are thinking about their actions, then you are creating fake TV…”
