HOME > AFP-JIJI PRESS NEWS JOURNAL > Article
'Are we five-year-olds?' F1 drivers won't mind their language
Leading Formula One drivers at this week's Singapore Grand Prix said Thursday they would not tone down their language on team radio, after the governing body FIA warned they should cut out the swearing.
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem told Autosport.com in an interview that he had asked Formula One Management to minimise the amount of foul language being broadcast on television.
Ben Sulayem said that motorsport was not rap music and drivers should mind their language, especially as children might be watching.
But world champion Max Verstappen, who is no stranger to a fruity outburst, told reporters that if the FIA did not like what drivers say in the heat of a race, then the solution is to simply not broadcast it.
What are we? Five-year-olds? Six-year-olds? the Red Bull driver said.
Even if a five-year-old or six-year-old is watching, they will eventually swear anyway when they grow up.
Swearing on F1 team radio is already bleeped out before being broadcast on a delayed feed, but Ben Sulayem wants to cut down on the amount of censoring needed.
We have to differentiate between our sport -- motorsport -? and rap music, Ben Sulayem said.
We're not rappers, you know. They say the F-word how many times per minute?
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, Ben Sulayem told the motorsport news website.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton said he had no problem with trying to clean up the language in Formula One.
I'm sure if you say there are penalties for it, people will stop (swearing), Hamilton told reporters in Singapore.
I don't know whether that is needed, but I definitely think there is a little bit too much.
But Hamilton did not like Ben Sulayem's comparison with rap music.
I don't like how he's expressed it, saying 'rappers' is very stereotypical. And most rappers are black, said Hamilton.
That was the wrong choice of words. There's a racial element there.
Lando Norris agreed with Verstappen, adding that F1 can just not play the radios.
We're the guys in the heat of the moment... So it's a lot easier for them to say than for us to do, the McLaren driver said.
We're just putting our passion into it. You're listening to the rawness of drivers and their thoughts and their feelings.
When I listen to it, I find it cool and I find it exciting.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc said foul language happened in lots of other sports, but F1 was unique in that drivers had microphones attached to them.
I think there are other priorities for the FIA at the moment, Leclerc said.
I would return the favour to the FIA and ask them to take off some of our bad words and not broadcast as much. And it's quite easy to do.
For us to control our words when you are driving a car at 300 kilometres per hour in between walls is tricky, he added.
And we are humans after all.
(2024/09/20 17:00)
Click Here for Japanese TranslationAFP-JIJI PRESS NEWS JOURNAL
- 09/20 18:43 New study reinforces theory Covid emerged at Chinese market
- 09/20 18:36 Taiwan questions two in probe into Hezbollah pagers
- 09/20 18:34 Unknown Mozart string trio discovered in Germany
- 09/20 17:01 Departing NATO chief warns US against 'isolationism'
- 09/20 17:00 'Are we five-year-olds?' F1 drivers won't mind their language
- 09/20 16:59 Russia's Kadyrov accuses Musk of 'remotely disabling' his Cybertruck
- 09/19 20:35 Centuries-old Swiss sport Hornussen swings into digital age
- 09/19 18:20 Ukraine official claims Russian advance in Kursk has been 'stopped'
- 09/19 16:58 Retirement can make you feel 'like an alien' in tennis, says Federer
- 09/19 16:54 China the top challenge in US history-- senior diplomat
- 09/19 16:52 Man who copied French rapist says he deserves to be punished
- 09/19 16:50 Saudi crown prince says no Israel ties without Palestinian state
- 09/18 20:07 Gaza engineer harnesses sunlight to make saltwater drinkable
- 09/18 20:06 Storm Boris toll rises to 22 in central Europe
- 09/18 18:13 Trump says only 'consequential' presidents get shot at
- 09/18 18:12 Israeli supply chain infiltration likely behind Hezbollah pager blasts-- analysts
- 09/18 17:08 'I am a rapist,' Frenchman tells trial over mass rape of wife
- 09/18 17:07 Dutch king vows 'stricter' asylum policy in key speech
- 09/17 17:51 Meta bans Russian state media outlets for 'interference'
- 09/17 17:50 Town at center of US migrant conspiracies hit with 33 bomb threats
- 09/17 17:47 Sean 'Diddy' Combs arrested amid assault lawsuits
- 09/17 17:14 US woman died after abortion ban delayed her medical care-- report
- 09/17 17:09 Iran president vows to ensure morality police don't 'bother' women
- 09/17 17:07 US Secret Service insists Trump well-protected despite second scare
- 09/13 20:27 Wreck discovered of French steamship that sank in Atlantic in 1856
- 09/13 20:25 Noel Gallagher's 'Brit Pop' guitars go under hammer
- 09/13 19:00 US says new Apple AirPods can be hearing aids
- 09/13 18:39 Putin warns West risks 'war' if it backs Ukraine long-range strikes
- 09/13 17:02 Bomb threat rattles US city in Republican anti-migrant conspiracy
- 09/13 17:01 Tottenham's Bentancur charged with misconduct over remarks about teammate Son
- 09/12 17:58 King Charles III glad of 'healing hug' from New Zealand women's rugby team
- 09/12 17:56 Gaza rescuers say Israeli strike on school killed 18
- 09/12 17:54 Rahm eyes DP World Tour events despite LIV-related sanctions
- 09/12 17:10 US, UK promise quick review on Ukraine military asks, ramp up aid
- 09/12 17:06 Mexico adopts world-first judicial reforms after protesters storm Congress
- 09/12 17:04 Korea star in tears as he denies 'ridiculous' China match-fix charges
- 09/11 19:22 South Korean pet care goes high-tech with AI diagnostics
- 09/11 19:16 F1 design guru Newey targets championship glory after joining Aston Martin
- 09/11 17:38 Raygun's revenge-- Lampooned Aussie breakdancer tops world rankings
- 09/11 17:09 Dam overflow sparks new crisis in insurgency-hit Nigerian city
- 09/11 17:07 Western powers sanction Iran over missiles to Russia
- 09/11 16:52 China slaps lifetime football bans on 43 over gambling, match-fixing