FIA president makes his feelings known about Max Verstappen completing his community service
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem recently talked about how Max Verstappen completed his community service penalty in Rwanda before the FIA Awards Ceremony. He further added that his gesture was a huge step in increasing diversity in F1 and motorsport in general.
Back in the 2024 F1 Singapore GP, Verstappen was penalized by the governing body for swearing at Thursday's press conference. During the conference, the Red Bull driver expressed his car's poor condition through the swear word 'f***.' The FIA was not happy with this and declared that Verstappen would have to do some kind of work of public interest as a penalty.
FIA's decision and the fact that an F1 driver was penalized for swearing about his car's condition and not another individual split the entire F1 paddock and the fanbase.
FIA did not reveal details of the penalty at that moment but created a social media post on X explaining it later. They wrote that Verstappen would have to do some kind of world related to the FIA's Affordable Cross Car that was locally built in Rwanda. This was part of the grassroots development program by Rwanda's Motorsport Federation.
After the FIA Awards Ceremony concluded, Mohammed Ben Sulayem was interviewed where he revealed that Max Verstappen fulfilled his promise and was present in the grassroots development event at Kigali, joined by other junior drivers. FIA President touched on diversity and stated that every driver should participate in these kinds of community service.
“He [Verstappen] really fulfilled his promise. He was there, he was with the young girls and boys who built the car. Also, there were girls who were the first time for them in karting, there were about hundreds of them. This is the community service we need every single driver, and champion, to do if we want to grow. If we talk about diversity: this is the real diversity," Ben Sulayem said.
FIA President hints at mandating community services similar to Max Verstappen's swearing penalty
After speaking about Max Verstappen serving his community service penalty, FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem shared his thoughts that he could mandate community services for every driver.
Speaking after the FIA Awards Ceremony, he said that the gesture from Verstappen was about encouraging aspiring drivers. He then added that he could remove the community work as a penalty and mandate it on every driver's super license in the future.
"It was not about the car, mainly about the people there, about the young girls and boys. I believe maybe in the future we won't have to have it as a penalty, it has to come as a gesture from the drivers. And maybe I'll put it on the contract once they get their license,” Sulayem said.
Max Verstappen was rewarded the drivers' world championship trophy at the 2024 FIA Awards Ceremony. The Red Bull driver wrapped his fourth consecutive title at the Las Vegas GP.