F1 drivers should carry on swearing

Social vulgarity or a reflection of human emotion?

Swearing is a divisive topic within society as a whole. Those who do it, inflict it upon others who don’t have a choice on whether they hear it or not. There is no choice.

There is, however, a decision on whether that individual deems it socially acceptable or not. And indeed how they react to it.

After all, would it deter someone from going to watch a film in the cinema if they knew it contained actors and actresses swearing? 

Would they also think twice about attending a football match through fear of being upset at hearing the players or the fans exchanging expletives?

It seems a preposterous question to ask, but that’s where we currently are in Formula 1 following an Autosport exclusive interview the FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who is seeking to stop drivers from swearing.

This forms part of a two-pronged clampdown: asking F1 not to broadcast the swearing and also introducing sanctions on drivers who continue to break the rules.

These are the same people who risk their lives each time they climb into the cockpit and try to deliver on-track for the thousands of people in their teams, not to mention the millions of supporters they have across the world.

To me, it seems a natural reaction if they have crashed out of the race or have been on the receiving end of a dangerous move.

Sport, as Lando Norris pointed out on Thursday, is about the raw emotion. Please don’t take away that passion.

This is the human element that the viewers can empathise with, albeit having never raced an F1 car. It is part of the fabric of what keeps sport real and bonds the viewers with these multimillionaire sport icons.

It is unfathomable that Ben Sulayem, who reminds us at frequent intervals that he was a former driver himself, wants to stamp this out of motorsport.

Surely, he remembers his reaction to stuffing a Renault F1 car into the wall in 2009 in a drag race against a Ford GT in Dubai? Interestingly, no audio has ever been released from that embarrassing stunt.

I digress, but the point is the FIA should not be punishing drivers from airing their feelings during races. Of course, there are limits and racial or social slurs should never be tolerated, but swearing in frustration? Absolutely not.

As a parent, would I stop my kids from watching F1 because a driver…