FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem wants F1 to make key change to driver radio messages

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FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has requested Formula 1 to limit the amount of swearing broadcasted on their global TV coverage.

Even though swearing is usually bleeped out by the broadcasters, the FIA President has voiced his concerns over the growing number of instances and wants to change the tone.

Drivers are often known for making outbursts to their teams either about another driver, a penalty, or to voice their displeasure over a strategy.

Max Verstappen drew criticism for his comments directed at his Red Bull team during the Hungarian Grand Prix which led to his engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, branding his requests to contest a penalty with another team as “childish” over team radio.

President Ben Sulayem says he wants to crack down on the language due to the range of audiences watching globally on TV when speaking in an interview with Motorsport Netherlands.

FIA wants a crackdown on sweary team radio messages broadcasted on F1 TV feed

Ben Sulayem believes there is a direct link between the language expressed by drivers over team radio and how it can contribute to online abuse.

“There is a difference between our sport, motorsport, and rap music,” said Ben Sulayem.

“We’re not rappers. How many times a minute do they use the F-word? It doesn’t happen that often with us. But that’s them and we are us.”

Now the FIA President said he wants to see changes made to what is broadcasted on the world feed. After being asked if they request censorship, he replied: “We can and we do.

“We have also been the ones who have given permission to broadcast more on-board radios. But there are rules and those rules are there for the well-being of the sport. And they must also abide by those rules.”

FIA already penalises drivers for statements that could provoke online abuse

The FIA has already made changes to the International Sporting Code recently, which penalises drivers who make statements to the media or through other means which could provoke abuse being posted online.

This was part of the FIA’s United Against Online Abuse campaign, which aims to stamp out online abuse directed towards officials and those who work in motorsport after a study claimed that 75% of athletes are ‘bombarded with threats’ on social media.

The revision to the ISC’s ‘misconduct’ clause came after the stewards used it to penalise Sergio Perez for comments made during the Abu Dhabi GP last year, in which he remarked that the “stewards are a joke” to his engineer after receiving a penalty for colliding with Lando Norris.

Norris went on to accuse Perez of ‘dangerous driving’ during the race, while Martin Brundle suggested that it was a racing incident.