F1 drivers to face fines, points penalties, bans for FIA abuse
Formula 1 drivers could face points deductions or bans if they repeatedly swear or criticize the sport’s governing body under revised misconduct guidelines issued by the FIA.
In the latest version of the International Sporting Code (ISC), the sport’s governing body mapped out recommended punishments for various types of misconduct by competitors.
The regulations define misconduct as “the general use of language [written or verbal], gesture and/or sign that is offensive, insulting, coarse, rude or abusive and might reasonably be expected or be perceived to be coarse or rude or to cause offense, humiliation or to be inappropriate” as well as physical assaults and the incitement to do any of the above.
A new appendix of the ISC presents recommended penalties that can be issued, albeit making an allowance for stewards to consider mitigating circumstances.
In the instance of “misconduct,” the appendix states that a first offence within a two-year period for F1 drivers should incur a €40,000 ($41,600) fine, a second offence comes with a €80,000 fine and a suspended one-month ban, and a third offence has a recommended €120,000 fine and one-month suspension plus deduction of championship points.
The exact same levels of punishments are also recommended for “any words, deeds or writings that have caused moral injury or loss to the FIA, its bodies, its members or its executive officers, and more generally on the interest of motor sport and on the values defended by the FIA.”
The new guidelines follow a clampdown on swearing by the governing body, which resulted in world champion Max Verstappen completing “work of public interest” after using a profanity in a news conference at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Verstappen served the punishment at the end of last year by taking part in a grassroots motorsport project in Rwanda ahead of the FIA’s end-of-season prize giving ceremony in Kigali.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was also fined €10,000 for swearing during a news conference last year in Mexico, half of which was suspended for a year.
Because Leclerc immediately apologized for the language, the stewards issuing the fine said a “mitigation factor” had led to a lesser penalty than Verstappen’s earlier in the same season.
Source: espn.com