Mohammed Ben Sulayem really doesn’t like it when Formula 1 drivers swear, but an official statement from the F1 Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA)—think Teamsters but faster—is urging the FIA president to please treat them like the adults that they are, and also look at his own language. And while the statement doesn’t contain any swears, it doesn’t mince words.
“As is the case with every sport, competitors must abide by the referee’s decision, whether they like it or not, indeed whether they agree with it or not. That is how sport works. The Drivers (our members) are no different, and fully understand that,” the statement begins.
“With regards to swearing, there is a difference between swearing intended to insult others and more casual swearing, such as you might use to describe bad weather, or indeed an inanimate object such as a Formula 1 car, or a driving situation.”
Ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix this year, Ben Sulayem asked drivers to not use cuss words in press conferences or over team radio, the latter of which is also broadcast to the public. The request would almost be fine or maybe even a little funny, if Ben Sulayem didn’t add that F1 had to “differentiate between our sport—motorsport—and rap music,” a remark that smells like it came straight out of the mouth of that one uncle who swears he isn’t racist, but just “tells it like it is.”
“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],” the FIA boss said back in September.
Seemingly in response to this, the GPDA’s statement continues: “We urge the FIA President to also consider his own tone and language when talking to our member drivers, or indeed about them, whether in a public forum or otherwise. Further, our members are adults, they do not need to be given instructions via the media, about matters as trivial as the wearing of jewellery and underpants.”
Defending F1 world champ Max Verstappen was infamously ordered to complete a day of community service after he used the word “fucked” in a Singapore press conference to describe how his car drove just hours after Ben Sulayem told them all to stop saying bad words. And just last weekend, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fined 10,000 Euros for saying “fuck” at a post-race press conference to describe how he felt when he nearly lost control of his car.
The whole situation is objectively hilarious and a unique product of mixing the very specific characters that populate F1. On the one hand, you have 20 dudes mostly in their 20s performing at the pinnacle of their discipline, thrust into ultra-high-speed, ultra-high-stress, sometimes literal life-and-death sporting situations for the entertainment of others week in, week out. They’re gonna say the f-word at one point or another.
On the other hand, you have a selectively puritan 62-year-old running the show, a person who gets big mad if you don’t couch your incredulity with “What the H-E-double-hockey-sticks” but is completely OK with hosting races in countries with awful reputations in regards to human rights and went on the record with views such as “women aren’t as smart as men” as recently as 2001. (In Ben Sulayem’s defense, I also thought women weren’t as smart as men back in 2001, although I should note that I was 8 years old at the time and still held the adjacent belief that girls gave you cooties.)
In any case, here’s the GPDA’s statement in full:
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