Formula 1 has launched a new campaign to call for greater respect between followers of the series and tackle abuse online and offline.
‘Drive it Out’ is directed at those who harass others at races and on social media. The problem of abuse at events was highlighted at the earlier this month Austrian Grand Prix, where several fans reported suffering misogynistic, homophobic and racist insults in the crowd.The series has released a video promoting the initiative today featuring its drivers, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. F1 said the video is intended to “recognise that while passion and competition is a very important part of our sport it can go too far, resulting in fans, journalists, presenters, and drivers receiving abuse both verbally and online.”
The video was simultaneously promoted across the social media channels of teams and drivers. “We are all sending a clear message that this isn’t acceptable and must end and those that continue to spread abuse and offensive comments are not welcome in our sport,” F1 added in a statement.
F1 intends to speak with all race promoters about the need to have firm deterrents against abuse and plans in place to tackle any that arises.
Online, F1 and teams will participate in a co-ordinated response to abusive messages. Teams will work together to block and report anyone who targets them with discriminatory language.
The sport also intends press social media platforms to take greater action against those who spread abuse.
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SherryF1
30th July 2022, 9:12
They respect the fans with Flavio Briatore, Pat Symonds, Vijay Mallya . Lol.
Fred
30th July 2022, 9:59
F1 respects fans by accepting money from Saudi Arabia. Saudi authorities’ execution of 81 men on March 12, 2022 was its largest mass execution in years despite recent promises to curtail its use of the death penalty. Most were beheaded publicly .
Brownerboy (@brownerboy)
30th July 2022, 10:48
Is this in response to a video going round on twitter of fan of a certain driver (wearing orange) burning a Mercedes/Hamilton cap or purely a coincidence?
Ruben
30th July 2022, 10:57
The question here of course is: do you want to be part of the problem or part of the solution?
Mr_NovemberHotel (@nicharvs)
30th July 2022, 11:14
So how do they determine what crosses the line as abuse? The ability to think gives the ability to be offended or cause offense. Some people found it abusive when someone shouted at stroll that he couldn’t park there, after he crashed during the British gp weekend. Is that offensive and should be banned?
JohnH (@johnrkh)
30th July 2022, 12:55
Part of the cause is the way F1 has been promoted over the last few seasons.
Andy Bunting (@wildbiker)
30th July 2022, 12:56
OH? Remember the Knee?
Remember the Diversity?
Remember Lasies in the garages?
Now F1’s gone full WOKE!
bosyber (@bosyber)
30th July 2022, 16:11
Maybe you need to use more all caps so we can hear you @wildbiker
Yeah looking at that list it is a lot of progress towards fans and paddock based on merits and love of the sport rather than accidents of birth.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
31st July 2022, 2:41
Go back to sleep, Andy.
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
30th July 2022, 13:56
An admirable initiative. I don’t really know what the answer is to online abuse. I suppose the risk of expanding your fan base is that the culture can shift and that seems to me to be happening at the moment. I hope fans with extreme attitudes will settle down and realise what the sport is about and hopefully those who don’t just move on to something else.
Ploss (@f1-ploss)
30th July 2022, 16:15
Get rid of the fizzy poppers and problem solved ;-)
Trido (@)
30th July 2022, 23:55
Thank god. Now that we have a campaign, it will never happen again. What a wonderful world we live in.
Tokenism is a disease of this world and it is helping no one.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
31st July 2022, 2:53
@trido What exactly is your point? Doing nothing isn’t solving the problem. I think that cynicism is a disease of this world and it is helping no one. This is not a “token” gesture, it is a reasonable response to the mounting vocal disrespect being shown in the F1 fan base (including the occasional comments that show up on this site, although the moderation here is better than many places). What’s wrong with reminding people to treat each other decently? There are millions of people seeing this campaign this weekend, and many people will be talking about it, like we are. That can only be a good thing.