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Sainz against the FIA's decision: 'That's a fundamental part of F1'
- Ludo van Denderen
Carlos Sainz began: "Only a race ban, I expected even more. No, I'm joking," the Williams driver laughed, when penalties for swearing were brought up. Swearing can now have huge consequences if drivers do it at official FIA events or even in their car over the course of a Grand Prix.
During the interview with a select group of media - including GPblog - Sainz then repeated the question aloud: What are his thoughts about the aforementioned matter? He then explained, "My thoughts are that F1 drivers should be controlled enough doing press conference and media appearances to not swear."
"And I am in favour, kind of, to us, a group to make an effort, when all the kids are watching us in press conference or in front of the media, to at least have good behaviour and decent vocabulary. I think that's not very difficult. So do we need fines or do we need to be controlled for that? I don't know.."
Sainz cannot agree with the FIA's swearing policy
However, Sainz clearly draws the line, and doesn't agree with getting penalties for swearing when driving a car at such high speeds. "At the same time do I think this is too much for radio communication and the adrenaline and the pressure that we have inside the car? Yes, I think it's too much. But [what] the FIA is trying to achieve with bans and everything… Because for me, that's a fundamental part of the sport where you guys get to see the real emotion and real pressure and the real excitement on the voice and even sometimes, unfortunately, a vocabulary of a racing driver."
According to Sainz, the latter should also just be allowed, but with conditions: "As long as it's not offensive words towards anyone and it's just a swearing word, where you just can see I'm being emotional, I don't think that should be too controlled because then you guys are going to miss out in a lot of the stuff that we both do inside the car."
Sainz then concluded: "Trust me, you don't want to put a microphone inside a football pitch and see what the guy is saying inside a football pitch, which is an equivalent situation."
This article was written in collaboration with Kada Sárközi
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