Ben Sulayem demands tougher action by stewards when drivers criticise officials
F1 News
- Ludo van Denderen
If it were up to Mohammed Ben Sulayem, FIA stewards would take tougher action if drivers and teams make negative comments about motorsport federation officials in the future. The FIA president revealed this in a post on Instagram.
According to Ben Sulayem, research has shown that there is a direct link between negative comments made by drivers and team members, and hate messages directed at officials via social media. According to the Emirati, an agreement was reached at the last World Motor Sport Council to change the definition of online abuse towards officials and that there is going to be "more support" from the FIA for officials who are victims of it.
Ben Sulayem therefore exclaimed: "Our stewards must be prepared to show strength when combatting this form of abuse and they have my full support. I urge them to show that the FIA will not allow abuse of any kind within our sport."
In Formula 1, drivers regularly openly criticise officials. Earlier this season, for example, Fernando Alonso complained that drivers of non-British origin would be judged differently by the stewards than Britons. Later, the Spaniard decided to nuance his words somewhat.
Ben Sulayem's post
This article has been written in collaboration with Matt Gretton