McLaren remind Max Verstappen of ‘responsibilities’ after FIA swearing punishment

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has claimed context must be taken into account when it comes to the F1 drivers swearing after Max Verstappen was punished by the FIA.

Verstappen is facing an FIA punishment after the stewards in Singapore came down hard on him for using the ‘F-word’ during Thursday’s press conference at Marina Bay.

McLaren boss weighs in on Max Verstappen, FIA row

Speaking about the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, in which Verstappen had made a critical setup error that prevented him from joining in the battle at the front, the Dutch driver had referred to his car as “f**ked”, earning him a gentle admonishment from the press conference host Tom Clarkson.

Cursing and swearing in general have been on the agenda this season, with FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem having introduced a change to the International Sporting Code to include a line forbidding “any misconduct” – an open-ended Article that can be used as the grounds to investigate such matters.

Verstappen has been ordered to conduct some work in “public interest”, which will likely take the form of an educational seminar such as when his Red Bull team boss Christian Horner attended the stewards’ seminar in 2022, an annual training event for FIA stewards.

Verstappen has been less than impressed by the punishment, branding it “soft” and “silly”, and warning that being pulled up on matters he finds trivial will be taken into consideration when he’s evaluating his future in Formula 1.

Verstappen is one of the more vocal users of swear words amongst the drivers, who have largely come out in support of the reigning World Champion, and frequently has his radio messages ‘beeped’ out if he has inserted some colourful language.

But the reigning World Champion is far from the only guilty party, and an egregious example of the celebration of the use of ‘bad’ language as being the markings of a ‘character’ is how Netflix and Drive to Survive made a star of Guenther Steiner as the former Haas F1 team boss peppered his speech with expletives.