GPDA lashes out at FIA president, points out his comments allegedly involving Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton
The Grand Prix Drivers Association has released its first official statement regarding swearing and jewelry issues allegedly concerning Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, among others. They also targeted FIA President Muhammed Ben Sulayem. The sport's governing body and its president Ben Sulayem have been clamping down on issues such as swearing, jewelry, and underpants, ever since the 2022 season.
In 2022, Sulayem and FIA were critical of Hamilton wearing jewelry inside the F1 car as they believed it was a safety concern. They had also got in a row with the drivers regarding wearing fireproof underpants during race weekends.
Recently, Red Bull driver Max Verstappen found himself at a crossroads when he was caught swearing at the FIA pre-race press conference in Singapore and was given community service as punishment.
The FIA President also criticized the drivers for using expletives in the team radio messages during the race and claimed that the drivers were not "rappers". The GPDA in their first official statement on their Instagram post targeted Ben Sulayem and wrote:
"With regards to swearing, there is a difference between swearing intended to insult others and more casual swearing, such as you might use to describe bad weather, or indeed an inanimate object such as a Formula 1 car, or a driving situation."
"We urge the FIA President to also consider his own tone and language when talking to our member drivers, or indeed about them, whether in a public forum or otherwise. Further, our members are adults, they do not need to be given instructions via the media, about matters as trivial as the wearing of jewelry and underpants."
Lewis Hamilton criticizes FIA President for his "rappers" comment
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton stated that FIA President Muhammed Ben Sulayem had a "racial element" in his comments.
The FIA President claimed that the sport had to "differentiate between our sport - motorsport - and rap music" as he believed that "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]."
As per Sky Sports, Lewis Hamilton responded:
"With what he said, I don't like how he expressed it. Saying rappers is very stereotypical as most rappers are black. It really kind of points towards 'we are not like them', so I think those were the wrong choice of words and there's a racial element there. I agree things need clearing up a bit but it is also good to have some emotion as we are not robots."
Lewis Hamilton also clarified that he avoids using expletives on the team radio given that he was aware that the young kids might be watching the sport.