F1 stars reach compromise after FIA talks as £100,000 fine saga ends ahead of Chinese GP | F1 | Sport
F1 drivers held talks with Garry Connelly, chairman of the FIA stewards, ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix regarding the immense fines that they are facing this season. After a ‘fair discussion’, the stars of the sport are feeling at ease with the state of affairs. After Mohammed Ben Sulayem announced his intention to clamp down on foul language last year, the FIA developed a fine system that was introduced into the international sporting code ahead of the 2025 global motorsport season.
Under the new rules, drivers can be fined up to £100,000 (€100,000) after three offences and can even be hit with championship point deductions and one-month suspensions from racing. The intense punishments sparked outrage across the motorsport community.
According to a report from The Race, Connelly met with the drivers in Melbourne last weekend to explain that if an incident occurs within a ‘controlled environment’, then it will be punished, but in-car radio chatter will not be policed, giving F1 stars freedom to react to incidents with their race engineers.
“Garry was incredibly helpful in trying to explain to us the way the FIA was going to approach the situation,” explained Carlos Sainz. “I really appreciate common sense and this time I must say common sense prevailed. For me, it was very clear, very understandable, and we can hopefully move on from that.”
Sainz’s opinion was backed up by Haas driver Esteban Ocon, who said: “Honestly, it was a quite fair discussion that we had, very open. And the FIA are not there to punish us for no reason. So if in the heat of the moment some bad words come between engineering and ourselves, that will be OK.
“But obviously, if you insult someone, that’s a different case. But that’s normal. We have to behave. We are on air all the time, live TV. It’s important for us to be models for the younger generation. From what we had in Melbourne, the discussion, I think we were all quite scared before. I think now it’s quite clear, and I think it’s quite fair the discussion we had.”
While F1 drivers have been calmed by the conversation with the FIA, the same is not the case in the World Rally Championship. After Adrien Fourmaux was fined £25,000 (€30,000 – two-thirds of which was suspended) for swearing in a post-race TV interview, the stars of the sport have taken action.
Ahead of the Safari Rally in Kenya, the WRC drivers’ union has released a statement confirming that racers will only answer interview questions in their mother tongues to avoid accidental use of foul language.
