F1 Team Radio at risk of shutdown by FIA

Jay Oh

FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has warned of a potential shutdown of F1 team radios

Now entering its 75th inaugural season, Formula 1 and its governing body the FIA has made strides to make the sport more passive and a safer place. However, it’s become clear in recent days that organization may be taking a few steps too far.

In an effort to widen the audience for the sport, a child-friendly F1 Kids broadcast was introduced a few years ago, with any and all remotely explicit radios being excluded from this version of the broadcast.

Despite this, it seems that the FIA’s president Mohammed Ben Sulayem isn’t fully satisfied with the direction that the sport is going considering these matters. Last season, he was at the center of a lot of controversy regarding the use of explicit language in the sport, beginning with Max Verstappen’s community service penalty for saying that “the car is f*****” when asked a question regarding the performance of the Red Bull during an FIA press conference at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Verstappen at a press conference in the Singapore Grand Prix following his penalty

Following Verstappen’s penalty, drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris spoke out about this issue when asked, with the seven-time world champion saying that the penalty was “a joke” and that “[he] hoped that Max doesn’t serve the penalty.” Norris added on with similar statements, saying that the penalty was “unfair” and that he didn’t “agree with any of it".”

The Dutchman himself gave his own opinion on this, stating that the drivers “weren’t five-year olds and should be able to speak out,” calling the penalty “ridiculous.”

Ben Sulayem also gave his take, defending the FIA’s decisions to penalize Verstappen:

"We're not rappers, you know,"

"They say the F-word how many times per minute? We are not on that. That's them and we are [us]."

Fast-forward to a few weeks later, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fined $10,000 for what appeared to be an accidental explicit word used in a press conference at the Mexico Grand Prix, most likely having a lighter punishment do to his immediate apology after he made the comment.

The use of explicit language on Formula 1 team radios have been around since team radios were introduced, with high pressure and very stressful situations on the track for both the drivers and their teams. Currently, should a radio message contain explicit language, it is filtered and censored with a bleep before the radio message gets broadcasted live.

Recently, Ben Sulayem spoke out about explicit language on team radios at an FIA officials summit, making it clear that it was a matter that the FIA was going to take into their own hands.

“Do we go on and then shut down the radios of live communications? Maybe. Do we delay it? Maybe,”

“There’s a lot of things we will work [on] with our promoters. We are still the owners of the championship.”

The FIA currently owns the majority of the sport alongside Liberty Media and Formula One Management.

Expectantly, the FIA President’s statements have not sat well with the fans, with many speaking out negatively about Ben Sulayem himself, stating that he needed to resign from his position and that his decisions were ruining the sport.

Just over a week ago, F1 steward and media pundit Johnny Herbert was given the axe by the governing organization from the stewards’ panel, likely due to his controversial takes on drivers like Verstappen.

With the disapproval of the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers’ Association) as well as the majority of the fans in the sport, it may be getting time for the increasingly unpopular Ben Sulayem to start looking into different options—or a different career.