George Russell has dismissed the FIA’s decision to back down from its hard line on driver swearing as ridiculous and suggested it was a ploy by the governing body’s president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, to garner support before he stands for re-election this December, while Lewis Hamilton described the situation at the FIA as “a mess”.
On Wednesday, the FIA announced it was to relax the strict stance against drivers using bad language which it has pursued relentlessly, apparently at Ben Sulayem’s request, for the past eight months. The president stated before the Singapore GP last year he did not want drivers to swear and the FIA imposed a new sliding scale of fines which could have also led to a ban for infringements at the start of this season. However, the organisation backtracked before this weekend’s Imola Grand Prix. The maximum fine has now been drastically reduced and the prospect of a ban removed.
