The FIA could increase censorship of Formula 1 drivers’ radio communications over swearing, president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has indicated.
Ben Sulayem began taking a tough line on drivers’ use of profane expressions last year. Charles Leclerc was fined and Max Verstappen was ordered to perform “public work” at an FIA event in Rwanda for swearing in official FIA press conferences.The FIA president has indicated the sport’s governing body may go further in its efforts to proscribe drivers’ swearing.
“Do we go on and then shut down the radios of live communication? Maybe,” he said at the FIA officials summit at the Jarama circuit in Spain. “Do we delay it? Maybe.
“There’s a lot of things that would work now with our promoter. FOM are the promoter, the FIA, we are still the owners of the championship.”
Radio messages played on the world television feed are already censored to mask any swearing. The same censorship is not applied to the live onboard feeds from the drivers’ cars on F1 TV, but these messages are delayed so that FOM can choose not to broadcast some. The broadcaster tends to omit messages immediately after a car has crashed or when a driver sounds especially agitated.
The frequency of some drivers’ swearing was highlighted after last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix when Verstappen swore on his radio on at least seven occasions, six of which were broadcast on the world feed, with the profanity ‘bleeped’.
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Drivers have been penalised for some remarks on their radios. Last year Yuki Tsunoda was fined €40,000 (£33,900), half of which was suspended, for using an ableist slur on his radio during the Austrian Grand Prix. Sergio Perez was given a formal warning at the 2023 season finale for saying “the stewards are a joke.”
Ben Sulayem addressed the furore over Verstappen’s penalty last year, claiming the driver enjoyed his work on the FIA’s Affordable Cross Car project in Rwanda.
“When he sat down – and he was nervous – I said, how about injecting back in the society, going and inspiring young girls and boys in Rwanda? [He said] oh please, I will do that.
“He was there, he was happy, he went there, hugged them, and it was a big plus for them. To see Max Verstappen coming to these people in Africa and then inspiring them, giving them the good words. They were so happy.”
The FIA president claimed some reports exaggerated the penalty they planned for Verstappen. “I remember, when the community service was given to Max Verstappen, what did some of the journalists say? They said, the president is going to have him cleaning the toilets.”
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Last year F1 drivers issued an open letter criticising Ben Sulayem over his stance on swearing and other issues. He insisted he has a positive relationship with them.
“Most of the drivers that speak to me, they have my phone, I am the most accessible president ever,” he said. “You will see they speak to me, they are very happy.
“But of course, when I was a driver I used to complain. And when I don’t win, I will complain more. But I tried to be quiet and then wait for the next race to win. So you see, that’s natural, that’s human.
“How do I treat the drivers? Like my sons and my daughters. Honestly, I treat them with passion, with love. I treat them with understanding. I have been there. I want them to succeed.”
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Señor Sjon
10th February 2025, 10:23
After every crash:
“I’m OK”
Can we stop that as well and have the real message?
Laz
10th February 2025, 11:50
Yes this. Exactly this. They do not have to treat the audience as idiots. After a crash any radio message basically shows the driver is ‘ok’ they don’t need to just shove a fake message up on screen.
I wish a journalist would call them out on it too.
El Pollo Loco
10th February 2025, 22:51
How are the messages fake? 90% of the time they really do say “I’m OK” and we hear it. Probably because the engineer literally asks “Are you OK?” If anything, they’re really almost needless because aside from an unprecedentedly horrific crash, we already know they’re OK since the cars, tracks and safety gear today combine to make a driver almost need to be trying to get hurt for them to suffer anything beyond the most minor of injuries.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
11th February 2025, 23:41
El Pollo Loco, the message is fake because the driver didn’t say it. In fact, they’re not forced to have said anything – it’s a stock message, triggered when the driver hits the “OK” button.
If the driver is injured, but that stock message plays out, that false statement could cause significant problems.
A better idea would be for the message to say “Driver pressed OK (button)”, which is truthful and still reassuring. (button is in brackets because it’s optional in English, but potentially needed in some translations).
Glenda Hayden
10th February 2025, 23:45
crash, we already know they’re OK since the cars, tracks and safety gear today combine to make a driver almost need to be
Cdfemke
11th February 2025, 0:24
Just like the fake crowd cheers, every time the same old sample… even at corners where there are no grandstands. It’s almost laughable.
The censorship is worrying tho
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
10th February 2025, 10:29
Maybe if they didn’t cherry pick the radio conversations to include mainly those with swearing to spice up the show it would be less of a problem.
I doubt the drivers are doing it more, the broadcaster is just making it seem that way. Surely there are far more pressing issues for the FIA.
BasCB (@bascb)
10th February 2025, 11:02
Yeah, I do think that FOM has been picking such messages up a lot more in recent years to create “content” / interaction i.e. about the sport.
Radoye
10th February 2025, 15:46
Well, they know which side their bread is buttered on, most of the new F1 fandom comes from DTS which was mainly made popular by Gunther ‘F-in’ Steiner. FOM knows what their target audience wants.
El Pollo Loco
10th February 2025, 11:26
+1
This is especially rich since all the messages incredibly delayed.
MichaelN
10th February 2025, 15:14
They in this case being FOM. Not the FIA. And yes, FOM is of course selecting these statements on purpose because it adds emotion, excitement, engagement, etc. They love it.
I’m not from a country where swearing is an issue on TV, but it’s always been laughable how the Americans both emphasize the outburst and then sanctimoniously censor the swearing. Like a bunch of teenagers doing something naughty and then giggling about it. It’s just silly.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
10th February 2025, 16:55
Completely agree.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
10th February 2025, 10:31
MBS can’t seem to give himself a break. We already know that, as the official promoter, FOM holds exclusive broadcasting rights. Apart from the team principals’ and race direction’s radio communication ban following the 2021 Abu Dhabi shenanigans approved also by FOM to better protect FIA officials, have there been any past instances where the FIA directly ordered FOM on how to broadcast F1 events?
I’m not sure if MBS is seriously considering a complete radio ban, because that would trigger an all-out war with FOM that would almost certainly end up in court, or if he’s just making threats for the sake of making them.
Either way, he’s wrong. People sometimes swear even in casual amateur football matches with friends. How can he expect drivers with adrenaline rush to stay composed when things aren’t going their way ? As long as the language doesn’t cross into abusive or otherwise unacceptable territory, which isn’t the case, drivers should be allowed to vent over the radio.
BasCB (@bascb)
10th February 2025, 10:58
If I am not mistaken, banning FOM to broadcast anything that might have “swearing” in it will just make sure that drivers and teams will WANT to include such language in most radio comms, just to keep the rest of the teams more in the dark about what they are saying! Unless they WANT it to be heard since they are trying to get a complaint, question or whatever broadcast to influence the stewarding and public opinion!
FOM is also quite capable of bleeping out / writing out (on the transcript) any such language use, it just might involve a slight delay of such messages.
Wholly agree with you that this is a stupid idea.
What if the FIA poll the fans to ask whether we are fine with the language of radio comments or would rather not hear anything from the drivers any-more just because MBS has gotten into a quest against swearing, jewelry and personal expression that might hurt his (or the FIA officials’) feelings?
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
10th February 2025, 14:00
@bascb
That has already happened in the past.
When we brought team radio comms to the world-feed in late 2005 the initial intention was to include live communications as we had during the F1 Digital+ broadcasts from 2000-2002.
With the F1 digital+ broadcasts the team radio did feature swearing and we got away with it because it was a PPV broadcast but we knew we needed to be careful with swearing moving it to the world-feed because obviously that goes out to everyone. We did ask teams/drivers not to swear and also tried to be more selective as far as when we put the radio on the broadcast.
I think it was during the Bahrain GP in 2006 where we had Giancarlo Fisichella’s radio open when he used the F word and that caused some issues so we again asked teams/drivers to limit swearing and tried to come up with better ways to inform when we had the radio channel open.
However at this point they did actually just start adding swearing where it wasn’t really required primarily so we didn’t broadcast certain communication and so the decision was taken to move away from live radio broadcasts so that we could better curate what we put out and make edits where required to bleep the swearing.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
10th February 2025, 14:04
A pretty famous example from the F1 Digital+ broadcasts of an angry Juan Montoya at Spa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyuEjp-UX70
And the Fisichella thing i mentioned from Bahrain 2006.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuBcHFQsSOs
BasCB (@bascb)
10th February 2025, 15:34
Thanks for those excellent examples of what no doubt would happen again @gt-racer!
AlanD
10th February 2025, 20:56
Bas, I think that is a misconception. I think the modern rules are that teams are allowed to hear all driver radio comms from any team, in real time, whether broadcast or not, and all communications with the driver must be in English, although this does not stop them using codes etc. It would not surprise me if teams each have a crew to monitor competitors radio traffic and feed in any pertinent details.
BasCB (@bascb)
10th February 2025, 11:00
If I am not mistaken, banning FOM to broadcast anything that might have “bad language” in it will just make sure that drivers and teams will WANT to include such language in most radio comms, just to keep the rest of the teams more in the dark about what they are saying!
Unless they WANT it to be heard since they are trying to get a complaint, question or whatever broadcast to influence the officials and public opinion!
FOM is also quite capable of bleeping out / writing out (on the transcript) any such language use, it just might involve a slight delay of such messages.
Wholly agree with you that this is a bad idea and not thought trough well enough.
What if the FIA poll the fans to ask whether we are fine with the language of radio comments or would rather not hear anything from the drivers any-more just because MBS has gotten into a quest against anything that might hurt his (the FIAs) feelings?
Red Andy (@red-andy)
10th February 2025, 11:22
100%. This is exactly why the profanity filter was introduced in the first place – teams knew that you could prevent a message from being broadcast by dropping in a judicious swear word. So FOM started broadcasting delayed radio messages with the bad words edited out.
anon
10th February 2025, 14:57
To that end, given that any profanities are already mostly being filtered from the broadcast, it does give the impression that Sulayem is looking to create a problem when there is already an effective answer.
El Pollo Loco
10th February 2025, 15:57
Very interesting fact. Thanks.
F1 frog (@f1frog)
10th February 2025, 16:11
Is your name a reference to Shawshank Redemption or is it a coincidence?
Sumedh
10th February 2025, 11:28
Indeed. Let’s do *** will mean Plan A, Let’s do *** will mean Plan B and so on.
Like how Alonso would only talk in Spanish / Italian in order to make it slightly more difficult for other teams to decipher.
S
10th February 2025, 13:38
All the kids are of course going to be fine with it. Their parents, on the other hand…
Media ratings are a thing for good reason. FOM is currently bypassing them.
The FIA is doing what they can to protect not just their property but also their business partners and audience.
If FOM won’t be responsible with F1 broadcasts voluntarily, then they might just have to be by order of the FIA.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
11th February 2025, 23:48
@bascb The FIA would not do such a poll because the people they are most interested in shielding from swearing are the ones least likely to have independent access to the poll form.
The people they are second-most-likely to want to protect being the people least likely to trust the FIA far enough to consider filling it in, thanks to past experience with FIA surveys being manipulated.
MichaelN
10th February 2025, 15:19
But that last bit is just it: they can control themselves just fine. Adrenaline doesn’t really matter. Nobody goes around threatening other drivers when they feel hard done by. The swearing is just learned behaviour because it’s considered OK within their team. And well, not everyone agrees. Is that a silly thing to get worked up about? I think so. It’s just words and it mostly just makes the person using these expletives look childish. But there are lots of people and places where they frown upon such statements in public. It’s fair for the FIA to raise the issue.
BasCB (@bascb)
10th February 2025, 15:37
FOM is perfectly able to filter out profanity with a slight delay though.
Jojo
10th February 2025, 10:45
I wouldn’t overly miss the team radio. When they started broadcasting their radio, it was an eye opener on just how much complaining all the drivers do. I’d rather not hear them all trying to get each other into trouble.
They still don’t have team radio in MotoGP (yet), and it’s good, just more old school with pit boards etc.
That being said, it can be quite interesting to hear things like strategy calls, or team orders but the rest I could do without.
S Arkazam
10th February 2025, 11:50
That might be the solution, until a driver stops his car, gets a marker out, and writes a profanity below the pit board message ;)
But taking a leaf out of Musk’s book, one doesn’t need a microphone or pencil, as hand signals are enough to get profanities out in the world.
Rick Gomez (@rgomez13)
10th February 2025, 15:31
I agree. It’s disappointing how much the drivers complain and I think It’s likely gotten worse because now it’s a weapon to create a penalty. They sound like 8 yr olds often.
Adrian Hancox (@ahxshades)
10th February 2025, 10:53
I sincerely hope this poor excuse of a man does not get re-elected, unfortunately I believe that shenanigans will ensue and he will be.
Ideals (@ideals)
10th February 2025, 12:20
The chances of him not getting another term are slim to none, best set aside that hope now. He’ll be around for a while.
Yes (@come-on-kubica)
10th February 2025, 10:53
Never cared for team radio but it has provided us with gyms like ‘YOU HAVETO LEAVE THE SPACE’, ‘GP2 ENGINE’, ‘ITS A YOKE’, ‘NICO HIT ME’, ‘NO NO NO NO’ and all of TOTO at the end of Abu Dhabi 2021. MBS has only detracted since getting this role and hope he will be removed soon. No surprise he’s a fan of censorship.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
10th February 2025, 11:00
And the Kimi classic “HEY – STEERING WHEEL!” :)
Postreader
10th February 2025, 11:03
Gloves and steering wheel! Hey!
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
10th February 2025, 14:34
Mark!!!! Gloves!!!!. *in all seriousness, I’m not sure how the radio works if we can listen to Kimi without the wheel attached. Surely he would’ve had to press the radio button? Obviously not.
Bloody Mark.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
10th February 2025, 11:23
You will not have The Drink.
El Pollo Loco
10th February 2025, 11:28
All the time you must leave a da space! All the time!
Ideals (@ideals)
10th February 2025, 14:26
And the all-time classic “Karma!”
Honestly, so much entertainment would be lost with the loss of radio.
El Pollo Loco
12th February 2025, 2:56
lol. Indeed. For all the whinging, it’s provided much more hilarity over the years. It also often provides a window into how the drivers are actually feeling about the team and its orders, strategy, etc.
Jere (@jerejj)
10th February 2025, 11:06
FIA has zero control over the world feed coverage broadcast, so as if.
Broadcasted team radio comms have been a thing for 20+ years, so they won’t go away, or otherwise, they should also be stopped in other categories, including Super Formula, which only started broadcasting team radio comms in the recent past.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
10th February 2025, 11:06
Balestre wrote the book on this way to lead the FIA via arrogance and charmless divisive statements. It seems like Suleyman reads it often
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
10th February 2025, 12:52
*Sulayem
for Stevep who struggled to understand my previous comment as the name was autocorrected, twice now !
S Arkazam
10th February 2025, 15:17
From ‘silly man’?
Thank you Craig.
SteveP
10th February 2025, 12:52
Who?
El Pollo Loco
10th February 2025, 16:17
You’re not allowed to have an opinion based on your logic.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
11th February 2025, 9:47
fan or stalker crazy chicken? cant work it out
El Pollo Loco
13th February 2025, 0:35
I guess accusing you of being a stalker should have been my reply to your OC cause it makes soooo much sense.
Craig
10th February 2025, 11:53
This is just getting silly now. The amount of effort being thrown into this pointless crusade will never justify whatever the hoped for “outcome” is, especially if he’s really that petty.
Roy Beedrill
11th February 2025, 1:32
It is not crusade but jihad.
Matthew Archer
10th February 2025, 12:42
I don’t like the radio stuff anyway they all just sound like whining hypocrites. They should do their talking on the track.
SteveP
10th February 2025, 12:49
Who?
SteveP
10th February 2025, 12:56
Message to MBS:
“It’s really simple, don’t include the drivers’ communication system in the feed to the media.
Then the drivers can be a silly as they want about pressing the transmit button (assuming button press rather than open mike) because only the teams get to hear whatever it was they said.”
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
11th February 2025, 23:50
And then there’s a contract dispute with Sky, who was promised that level of access to the feed as part of their TV fee, and will likely want a partial refund if that’s no longer possible. Which it can and possibly will make the FIA’s problem.
Philip (@philipgb)
10th February 2025, 12:57
Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water
Where exactly is the pressure to censor radio communications coming from? I’m assuming most people on this site are long standing fans, does any one actually get uncomfortable at a driver dropping an f bomb? I wouldn’t even keep my kids from watching it because of the odd expletive, I’m not proud of it but they probably hear just as bad from myself when I’m driving. They’re smart enough to understand the context that this isn’t everyday language
It’s not even like we don’t have sufficient technology to censor this if it’s so important. The idea that they won’t let the sports fans be exposed to something they’re almost certainly in support of being exposed to by a significant majority is weirdly conservative and perhaps if certain peoples sensibilities are so fragile then being involved in running a sport isn’t for them
Aquila_GD
10th February 2025, 20:53
MBS again seems to be on a self-destruct mission. He should be removed before he takes down the sport we all love
M2X
10th February 2025, 13:01
This is the rant of conceited narcissist.
MbS needs to be on the foreground, needs to win every battle.
Todt is made to look like the perfect professional in this light
El Pollo Loco
10th February 2025, 16:04
Precisely. This is just one big ego/power trip. What an absolute bozo who is only going to get re-elected because the FIA has a bunch of delegates from places that have zero racing going on. The FIA is turning into another FIFA, FISA or whatever.
David BR (@david-br)
10th February 2025, 13:19
Human rights abuses are fine, but please, no commenting on them and no swearing.
Thank you for your cooperation.
S
10th February 2025, 13:47
Does the FIA commit Human Rights abuses?
The closest F1 gets is when Liberty/FOM sign commercial agreements to take F1 to places where they have happened recently/continue to happen.
That includes just about every country F1 visits, if not all, of course….
The FIA does not have control over that aspect.
David BR (@david-br)
10th February 2025, 20:16
I’m not saying they do. I just find the whole issue absurd, drivers or other team members swearing mildly on broadcasts, when our media channels are saturated with state-approved violence and atrocities and while the planet starts to burn. How can anyone seriously get so worked up about the occasional expletive that they’d consider taking all radio broadcasts down? It’s the kind of thing you always get in authoritarian states: political opponents are routinely imprisoned, tortured and killed, no problem, while mild deviations from ‘correct social behaviour’ are punished. Apologies if that makes little sense. For me it’s a non-issue and at the same time the heavy-handedess from the FIA president reeks to me of the kind of hypocritical moralization you get in control-heavy state or religious regimes.
S
11th February 2025, 0:25
It’s a point of negotiation – start extreme and work back to the point where you really want to end up.
It’s also a result of the friction between FIA and FOM, and how each gains from F1.
The FIA don’t want to lose entertainment factor from F1 (which was the intention behind broadcasting team radio, until the teams figured out they could abuse that for their own benefit too) – they just want it to be decent and family-friendly. They also want it to be presented accurately and in-the-moment, which is why they’ve asked teams to tone down their language. It’s a compromise, and FOM has little interest in keeping it clean as they make money from such sensationalism.
Let’s be honest – nobody switches on the F1 broadcast hoping to learn some new profanities. It’s not a feature that needs to exist.
I personally see little gain in broadcasting the radios at all, but if they really are seen as a holistic benefit then there’s nothing wrong with making sure they are broadcast-worthy to the entire audience – not just the ones who embrace poor personal behaviour and lack of self-control as ‘part of the game.’
Anyway, none of this has any relation whatsoever to – and I quote – “the kind of hypocritical moralization you get in control-heavy state or religious regimes.”
This is sporting/marketing broadcast for a mass audience. It’s not about power or control, it’s about the product and the quality of its presentation.
Remember that the FIA owns F1 – FOM/CRH does not. It’s only through ‘heavy-handed control’ by the EU that the FIA does not also control the F1 broadcast. Just about every other motor racing series in the world gets to control its own official media, but most of F1’s media is farmed out to a third party who is all too willing to abuse it for profit.
El Pollo Loco
10th February 2025, 16:05
In fact, they’re encouraged. MBS likes a strong hand.
David BR (@david-br)
10th February 2025, 17:03
I’m someone who finds it difficult to take moral offence over completely commonplace expletives while we are asked by the western media to quietly observe the bombing of a civilian people in their own land over months and then listen to calls for the survivors and the rubble to be cleared away.
El Pollo Loco
10th February 2025, 22:54
I 100% agree. It’s offensive to me that they’re even wasting so much time and political capital on this issue.
anon
10th February 2025, 19:26
@david-br Sulayem has put it on public record that he does not care if the host nation of an FIA event is criticised for human rights abuses, so your post is actually a rather effective summary of FIA policy at the moment.
El Pollo Loco
10th February 2025, 22:56
What a charming guy. He’s like one of those movie villains who let out an exaggerated yawn when an innocent person says “please, I have a family” before shooting just because he wants them to know how little he cares.
Wer
10th February 2025, 14:01
This absurdly silly and petty crusade should not have place in the civilized world.
Benny Sulayem acts like he’s the principal of a highschool.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
12th February 2025, 3:43
this is formula 1
Dex
10th February 2025, 14:31
Who is this weird guy from a tribal system to decide what I’m going to be seeing on TV? I’m sure he’s such a nice, God fearing person in private, when bad words hurt his soul so much. He comes from a dictatorship, so he sure likes running unopposed for that job.
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
10th February 2025, 17:12
This crusade of his is unbelievable. Never mind the human rights abuses in these new countries F1 has started racing in. It’s the no-no words that are a problem? How about the political prisoners and women with zero rights? I can’t understand how businesses in free societies have warmed up to these medieval villains. And this privileged, women-hating, failure of an FIA president picks fights over language, jewelry, and underpants?? The FIA have lost their minds.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
11th February 2025, 9:56
That doesnt make any sense. No fan of his but its not the FIA’s job to sort out human rights abuses any more than it is any company that does business there. A company can tell its employees not to do something, it isnt determined by worse things going on elsewhere.
F1 was alive and kicking in the UK when homosexuality was illegal (pre 1969) and women couldnt open a bank account without their husbands permission ( pre 1978). Before health and safety ( gone mad) stopped dozens of people dying every year from un-necessary accidents in building and manufacturing. Still plenty of big inequality issues here in the UK including 1.5 million people working illegally.
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
11th February 2025, 17:53
The FIA president shouldn’t be bothered with the strong language, jewelry, and underpants of racing drivers. My point is if he’s going to embark on any kind of personal crusade, why wouldn’t it be against a problem with real consequences? The change to racing in countries shunned for their governments brutal behavior presents real issues to fight against. No wonder he doesn’t care because he’s a horrible person from a privilege background in one of these brutal countries F1 should not be racing in. Western sports have always been used to champion western values and that is a moving target. It’s a different thing to judge the UK by today’s norms, but these oil dictatorships are horrible when compared to the norms of the last century. There’s a reason F1 exited South Africa and Russia. For the same reason they should exit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and the UAE. I’ve visited most of these places and life is absolutely dismal for anyone not aligned with the regimes.
That entire attitude of “not their business” enables brutal dictatorships across the world. Cut them off until their behavior changes. Instead we are signaling that slavery and abuse is A-OK!!
JoshAtTwo
10th February 2025, 18:04
It’s his job to police motorsport that falls under the FIA blanket. Some people don’t agree, but he still has to do what he thinks is best for the sport. So, what’s the big deal? Why are people so offended if he doesn’t allow swearing? Are they thinking that this is somehow indicative of a larger moral issue? Are you going onto other forums to get angry about corporate sweatshops in Bangladesh, and human trafficking violations in countries that host F1 races (something the head of the FIA COULD address)? Oh no, let them swear, please. It’s a big deal. Do you throw a tantrum when you lose at a video game too?
El Pollo Loco
10th February 2025, 23:00
This is a bizarre way to look at people’s complaints. Many of us do point out all the time that we should not be racing in many of the countries we do. The criticism is not due to anyone caring about whether the drivers can swear, but rather what these actions show about the FIA president.
And, BTW, this is not part of the FIA president’s job description AT ALL.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
11th February 2025, 9:57
You know his contractual job description. Amazing
El Pollo Loco
13th February 2025, 0:37
Stop stalking me.
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
10th February 2025, 18:15
What happens if a driver swears whilst wearing jewellery? Will they get a lifetime ban? Maybe they’ll have to perform community service in an orange jump suit?
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
11th February 2025, 23:51
@sonnycrockett No, I think they just get 2 steps on the penalty meter instead of one. A lifetime ban isn’t even on the scale as currently written.
baasbas
10th February 2025, 19:03
Ah, the pick-pocket/magician trick. Look at my right hand here doing all this obvious stuff, while my left hand empties your pocket.
Look at the good work we are doing, look at the progress, look at us solving this issue… and please let it divert your attention from all the actual issues we’re not doing anything about
El Pollo Loco
10th February 2025, 23:01
A good diversion maybe, but not through showing they’re doing a good job.
Paul (@frankjaeger)
10th February 2025, 20:04
Bore off, they’re professional athletes driving at 200mph
CryptidBadger (@ninjabadger)
10th February 2025, 20:14
Cue every team radio message being full of expletives as teams make sure strategy calls aren’t broadcast.
David BR (@david-br)
10th February 2025, 20:23
:)
That would actually be quite funny: all the real strategy messages would be unbroadcastable, while the fake ones designed to trick the other teams would be expletive-less and aired. Then the race commentators would have to explain to audiences that all the messages FIA is broadcasting are actually fake diversions and worthless nonsense.
AlanD
12th February 2025, 13:31
Badger, all teams are allowed to listen to other teams driver-pitwall comms, whether or not they are broadcast on TV. It is a misconception that swearing stops other teams from hearing them.
Justin (@vivagilles27)
10th February 2025, 22:38
What an a**h**e! ;.)
Mark (@mrcento)
11th February 2025, 0:26
It feels like it’s just him that is personally offended by the odd naughty word for some reason. He seems to be on a one man crusade/power trip to find a way to exert authority over anything he can, no matter how irrelevant or petty.
A driver might swear in the heat of the moment?, So what?, Motorsport is dangerous. It says so on any ticket you buy to attend an event. Every single session we watch, no matter how safe it can be made, there’s a risk somebody dies due to an incident, be that a driver, a mechanic, a marshal or somebody in the crowd from a debris strike etc. Thankfully it’s become increasingly rare, but that tiny risk is still there… We might see somebody get hurt or die, but heaven forbid somebody says a word you probably hear 100x a day if you walk down the street, whist a driver is in the middle of a battle at 190mph+.
The cynical part of me always thinks ‘follow the money’. And it’s usually pretty safe to do so…..
So let me throw this out there. It’s a push to move F1 harder into a subscription service. He’ll ban all forms of expression being broadcast, be that swearing, political etc, all opinions and personality removed from broadcast. Water it down into a nothingness.
BUT for ‘just’ £20 a month, you’ll be able to watch F1 ‘uncensored’ where nothing gets beeped out…. well except any criticism of him, human rights or sportswashing, which will remarkably always end up on the cutting room floor.
S
11th February 2025, 4:45
It’s already locked up behind a subscription fee. The only live, unedited radio messages available to public are through F1TV (controlled entirely by FOM).
Everything produced for the world feed is edited and curated by FOM, for both rating safety and for dramatic benefit.
And again – it is not the FIA presenting this live media. It is all coming from FOM. The FIA and their president do not produce the world feed or any of the live streams featuring team radio.
All they want is for that media to be clean and family-friendly. And if it isn’t, then it’s not the way they want their “FIA Formula 1 World Championship” presented to the public. They have every right to take this action because they own it.
raddie (@raddie)
11th February 2025, 5:35
FIA may “shut down” Ben Sulayem.
Ajay
11th February 2025, 7:17
Well elect a dictator.. dictator is what you get
HW Small
11th February 2025, 8:56
There is something of a cultural clash here between the head of the FIA and F1, and it is one that may well split the FIA in two, or cause F1 to move away.
Either way, there is a simple answer – leave any censorship to the broadcast companies who will know what is acceptable in their regions.
Also, the numerous sponsors will have their own views on what is acceptable, and the drivers who exced the limits will likely find themselves without sponsorship (or a drive).
BMS Should stick to safety.
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
11th February 2025, 9:13
Apologies if this is an ignorant comment but is the issue a cultural one for Sulayem? He seems to have a real personal mission on this one with more passion than anything else he’s done (or not done) in his tenure.
Is the swearing a big taboo for his culture?
aa
11th February 2025, 17:05
you are on the right track..
its common sense to not mix oil and water. this is what you get when you do.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
11th February 2025, 23:54
@rdotquestionmark Some forms of swearing are taboo in Ben’s culture, but I think that the personal communication preferences (which have been shown to be quite particular) are the bigger impetus behind this decision.
S
11th February 2025, 11:00
Perhaps one day people will see MBS in a similar same vein as Jackie Stewart. Pushing for positive change in F1 is rarely popular, but then Stewart didn’t do it to be popular either – he did what he did to make F1 better.
Stewart’s goal was a safer F1, while MBS has the vision for an F1 which can be viewed as wholesome family sporting entertainment rather than pure money-making. Likewise with Bernie, this man comes from a sporting background – not a business/marketing/corporate background – as such his main motivations are sporting, not financial.
Is that really so bad? Surely the restriction of a few excesses is worth it in the long run, but many just can’t see it yet.
I find it odd that so many look back on the days of F1’s clean and ‘gentlemanly’ history with great fondness – yet the FIA’s current push to return some of that aspect back to F1 is being met with such resistance.
Is F1 really better with such blatant and excessive profiteering? Has it improved with so many side-aspects and cross-promotion involved? Is condoning and broadcasting obscene language really a positive? Don’t we get enough of it all in every other aspect of our lives now?
I see and largely share MBS’ view on what F1 should be – no matter how unpopular that is in the immediate term.
Colin
11th February 2025, 14:02
I’m curious if anyone can name another sport where so many words needs to be bleeped during the broadcast.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
11th February 2025, 23:55
This is why most sports don’t attempt to mike the athletes for the entire runtime of their sport in the first place.
Richard
11th February 2025, 19:35
Or we could just all agree that there is no such thing as “bad words” there are just words and get over ourselves. It’s how something is said and the context in which it was said not the words themselves that matter. Swear words are like Santa Claus at a certain age we just have to acknowledge we made it all up.
bull mello (@bullmello)
11th February 2025, 21:02
For what it’s worth, always curious to hear the radio transmissions. Not worried about bad words.
This is racing.
dan
17th February 2025, 0:44
What is this guys religion again? Oh yh silly me who would have thought
Dale
17th February 2025, 23:33
There’s the bigot in you creeping to the surface …
Dale
17th February 2025, 23:32
The ‘swear jar presidency era’ of the FIA.