F1 News
Stewards apply double standards: No penalty for Leclerc after saying 'f**k'
- Ludo van Denderen
Max Verstappen received a penalty for swearing during a press conference, but Charles Leclerc is getting away with the same offence for now. Johnny Herbert, a steward in Singapore and Mexico, and his fellow stewards decided not to penalise Leclerc's swearing. The swearing has been reported, but no investigation has been completed (yet)—whereas in Singapore, an investigation into Verstappen was launched quickly. They are investigating it, but there has been no result yet.
The stewards gave Max Verstappen a community service penalty for using the word 'f***ed' during a press conference ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix. Herbert, a former F1 driver followed up on the matter in one of his conversations with a betting company. "There is more swearing than there ever has been. A press conference is not the place for it. Some journalists have said the sport is trying to make robots out of the drivers. That’s not the case. You are just asking them not to swear which I think is the right thing. Most drivers don’t swear."
In Singapore, the stewards could have reprimanded Verstappen. But Herbert told the betting site: "We are there to implement the rules and make a decision together. We could have fined him, but we felt it would be more beneficial to get him to do something socially responsible."
Will Leclerc get a penalty for swearing in the press conference?
Yet for now, the stewards in Mexico, which also included Herbert, have not penalised Charles Leclerc, despite the man from Monaco using the word 'f**k' during the press conference after the Mexican Grand Prix. Leclerc said on Sunday: "I lost the rear and then you forget about Lando and you just hope that you are going to take it back. I had one oversteer and then when I recovered from that oversteer, I had an oversteer from the other side and then I was like, ‘f**k’."
Unlike Max Verstappen, Leclerc hasn't (yet) received a penalty for a similar incident. Incidentally, the same set of stewards handed out Verstappen two ten-second time penalties for his actions on track with Norris. The same hefty penalties were not handed out in other similar examples. Other drivers - such as Sergio Perez - were not penalised for incidents reminiscent of the incident with Verstappen.
This article has been created in collaboration with Matt Gretton