Verstappen's Swearing 'Unacceptable': Sky Sport's Analysts Suggest

Saturday, 21 September 2024 at 14:28

Updated at Saturday, 21 September 2024 at 14:29

Sky Sports's analysts Jamie Chadwick and Antony Davidson discussed FIA's decision to penalize Max Verstappen after swearing during a press conference.

Speaking ahead of the weekend, FIA's president Mohammed Ben Sulayem asserted he wanted drivers to watch their language, saying we "have to differentiate" between motorsport and "rap music."

Max Verstappen was the first to discover just how serious the president is about this matter. After dropping an F-word during Thursday's press conference, the Dutchman was summoned to stewards, and they reached a pretty controversial outcome.

Instead of imposing a financial penalty on the triple World Champ, the stewards wanted to impose a greater punishment. Here's what the official document published on FIA's website read:

"As this topic has been raised before and is well known by the competitors, the Stewards determined to order a greater penalty than previously and that Verstappen be "obliged to accomplish some work of public interest."

After this controversial ruling by FIA, the swearing of Max Verstappen (and other F1 drivers in general) has become one of the most discussed topics in the paddock. Indy NXT driver Jamie Chadwick said on Sky Sports:

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"A lot of people are saying, 'If you put a microphone on every sportsperson, I'm sure to hear a lot of things you don't want to hear.'"

"But, on the flip side of that, we do hear them. From what I've noticed in a lot of junior motorsport paddocks. You learn bad habits and you learn to speak the language that you see your heroes speaking. So I think it is important we clamp down on it."

"Max using bad language in a press conference wasn't whilst he was driving at ludicrous speeds, but there's a fine line there for sure."

Former British F1 driver and Sky Sports analyst Anthony Davidson chimed in on the subject, also pointing out that Verstappen's foul language at the press conference was unnecessary while adding his reaction was unacceptable.

"It's one thing losing your cool in a cockpit travelling over 200mph, it's a fight out there, you're in fight mode in your head, and you're not aware a lot of the time at that moment that what you say is broadcast to the world. It's you and your engineer, that's what you think, and you can lose your cool."

"There's one thing losing your cool in the car and then being slack out of the car and I think what we heard from Max and maybe a few others after it being announced, that's unacceptable."

When asked after the second practice session about his thoughts on the penalty he received, Max Verstappen refused to answer and walked away.