Formula 1’s drivers have called for FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem to “consider his own tone and language” through a Grand Prix Drivers’ Association statement, in the wake of controversy over swearing.

A statement posted on the GPDA’s new Instagram account outlined a collective statement from its members, showing unity with Max Verstappen as the Dutchman was given effective community service by the FIA for swearing in Singapore’s Thursday press conference.

Charles Leclerc was also fined €10,000 for swearing in Mexico’s post-race press conference, half of which was suspended for 12 months on the provision that there were no repeat offences.

It also stated that the FIA should be more willing to treat the drivers as adults, referencing the media missives handed out during 2022 on wearing jewellery in the car – which appeared to be targeted at Lewis Hamilton.

The statement read that, although the drivers accepted that they must abide by the “referee’s decision”, the GPDA wished to collaborate with F1 and the FIA to ensure that all decisions are to the benefit of the championship and its spectacle.

The GPDA also suggested that it was unhappy with the levying of driver fines, particularly as it felt the use of those fines was not fully transparent. 

Mohammed Ben Sulayem, President, FIA, congratulates Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

It asked that Ben Sulayem should “provide financial transparency” for the application of any money accrued from fines, and that all stakeholders should be in agreement of where to put that money.

Furthermore, the GPDA cited that it felt it was playing its part in helping to ensure F1 was well promoted for the benefit of everyone involved in the championship – and called upon other stakeholders to do the same. 

Of the current drivers, George Russell is a director of the GPDA, as is four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel. Former F1 driver and two-time Le Mans 24 Hour winner Alexander Wurz is currently the GPDA’s chairman.

The GPDA statement in full

GPDA Statement regarding “Driver Misconduct”

“As is the case with every sport, competitors must abide by the referee’s decision, whether they like it or not, indeed whether they agree with it or not. That is how sport works. The Drivers (our members) are no different, and fully understand that.

“Our members are professional drivers, racing in Formula 1, the pinnacle of international motorsport. They are the gladiators and every racing weekend they put on a great show for the fans.

“With regards to swearing, there is a difference between swearing intended to insult others and more casual swearing, such as you might use to describe bad weather, or indeed an inanimate object such as a Formula 1 car, or a driving situation.

“We urge the FIA President to also consider his own tone and language when talking to our member drivers, or indeed about them, whether in a public forum or otherwise. Further, our members are adults, they do not need to be given instructions via the media, about matters as trivial as the wearing of jewellery and underpants.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Team, 1st position, is congratulated on the podium by Mohammed Ben Sulayem, President, FIA

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

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“The GPDA has, on countless occasions, expressed its view that Driver monetary fines are not appropriate for our Sport. For the past 3 years, we have called upon the FIA President to share the details and strategy regarding how the FIA’s financial fines are allocated and where the funds are spent.

“We have also relayed our concerns about the negative image financial fines bring to the Sport. We once again request that the FIA President provide financial transparency and direct, open dialogue with us. All stakeholders (FIA, F1, the Teams and the GPDA) should jointly determine how and where the money is spent for the benefit of our Sport.

“The GPDA wishes to collaborate in a constructive way with all the stakeholders, including the FIA President, in order to promote our great Sport for the benefit of everyone who works in it, pays for it, watches it, and indeed loves it. We are playing our part.

“Best regards,

“The Directors and Chairman of the GPDA on behalf of the Grand Prix Drivers

“#RacingUnited for our Safety, our Sport, our Fans.”

Seven-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi is considering the World Endurance Championship over the GT World Challenge Europe as he downscales his race programme for next season.

The BMW factory driver has revealed that the German manufacturer is steering him towards the WEC rather than a full campaign across the Endurance and Sprint Cup legs of the GTWCE in 2025.

Rossi, who contested the WEC’s new LMGT3 class and seven GTWCE events with the WRT team this year, said that at the moment his decision is “more towards the WEC”, but stressed that he has yet to make a final call.

That will not be made until after the final GTWCE enduro in Jeddah at the end of this month.

“I have quite a lot of pressure from BMW to remain in the WEC because for them it is more important,” the 45-year-old Italian explained over the course of last weekend’s final round of the 2024 WEC in Bahrain.

“I am a little bit uncertain and I haven’t decided yet. Some things are better here, some things are better there.”

Rossi has previously pointed to the prestige of racing in a world championship and the opportunity it presents to compete at the Le Mans 24 Hours, while stressing the ultra-competitiveness of GT3-only racing in the GTWCE in which he competes in the Pro class.

He has decided to cut down on the number of races he will contest from 16 this year to 10 or 11 next for family reasons at a time when the birth of his second child is imminent.

#20 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Valentino Rossi

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

To achieve that, he will have to drop out of one of the championships that have been part of his 2024 programme.

Should he choose the GTWCE, it is likely that he would do both legs of the series in which he has achieved his greatest success since his full-time swap to four wheels following his retirement from MotoGP at the end of 2020.

He took a solo Sprint Cup victory in each of the 2023 and ’24 seasons driving a BMW M4 GT3 for BMW, the former as part of a full campaign, the latter over the two short-format GTWCE events he contested alongside a full campaign in the enduros.

Rossi reaffirmed his intent to contest the Bathurst 12 Hours, the opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge next February, for a third year in succession.

Had he continued to race in both WEC and GTWCE, the Australian enduro would likely have been a casualty of his efforts to reduce his number of races.

Rossi played down the chances of him racing BMW’s M Hybrid V8 LMDh after try-out in a WRT-run car at last weekend’s WEC rookie test in Bahrain.

He said that he was “happy to test the [Le Mans] Hypercar and put it in my collection”.

Ferrari academy driver Dino Beganovic will make the step up to Formula 2 with DAMS for the final two races of the season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The 20-year-old replaces Juan Manuel Correa, who returned to competition in 2021 after sustaining serious injuries in the same crash at Spa Francorchamps in 2019 that claimed the life of Anthoine Hubert.

In what was a highly competitive F3 campaign which saw 12 different drivers taste victory – this number not including Leonardo Fornaroli who became the first winless champion – Beganovic was victorious twice, topping the podium in the Australia feature race and the Belgian sprint for Prema.

While seven zero scores limited his championship potential, he remained in the mathematical contention until the final weekend in Monza, eventually ending the year in sixth – a result which matched that of his rookie season.

Beganovic will join Luke Browning, Christian Mansell and Oliver Goethe in graduating from F3 for the final rounds, but the announcement comes without any hint that this union will run beyond the two weekends.

“I can’t wait to make my Formula 2 debut with DAMS, who has so much history as well as a tremendous drive to achieve great results,” said Beganovic.

Dino Beganovic, Prema Racing, 1st position, lifts the trophy in celebration

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“This feels like the natural next step in my career, and I’m ready for the challenge in an extremely competitive championship.

“My aim for these two races is to learn as much as possible and to be scoring points in my first F2 action in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.”

The decision will come as a blow to Correa, who successfully climbed back to F2 after recovering from his injuries, having initially been placed in an induced coma following the incident.

Recommencing his racing career initially in F3, Correa has spent the past two seasons in F2 while also contesting in LMP2 machinery having won the European Le Mans Series finale at Algarve in 2022. 

Juan Manuel Correa, Dams

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

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But the American-Ecuadorian has endured a tough year, though he returned to the podium for the first time since that Spa crash in the Spanish feature race – an occasion that came five years to the day since he had last stood on the F2 podium alongside Hubert.

Speaking of the switch, DAMS team owner Charles Pic said: “We’re excited to take on a talent like Dino for the remainder of the season. It’s a step up from Formula 3 and a very competitive championship, but we’re confident that with the help of the team, Dino can be competitive in these final two rounds.

“He has an excellent racing CV, and we believe he has what it takes to fight for strong points.

“I would also like to thank JM for his efforts this season, it was a pleasure to work with him and we wish him all the best for the future.”

McLaren thinks that Formula 1’s aborted-start procedures could be tidied up in the wake of the confusion over Lando Norris’s rules breach at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

With Lance Stroll having beached himself in the gravel at Turn 4 following a formation-lap off, F1’s race director decided to abort the start when the cars had formed up on the grid.

In theory, that meant the start was abandoned and the drivers should have waited on the grid for a scheduled restart.

However, pole position man Norris and fellow front row starter George Russell took it as a signal to complete another formation lap – with several cars behind him also following him away.

Other competitors were aware of the rule that they were not supposed to move off, but they were quickly given permission to also go because of the problems that would have been caused by some cars doing extra laps.

After the race, Norris and Russell were both handed a reprimand and fined 5000 euro each for not following the expected procedures.

However, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella thinks that there is some ambiguity in the wording of the rules – especially with the way things played out in Brazil, with the decision to abort the start only being made once the cars had formed up on the grid.

“When you look at the letter of the regulations, it’s a little tricky, because in the extra formation lap, there is talk about delayed [starts], then there is the aborted [start] and it talks about returning to the grid,” he said.

Andrea Stella, Team Principal, McLaren F1 Team

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“So there are some technicalities that may have made the situation a little confusing for Lando. I guess he just reacted to the lights at the time.”

Stella’s mention of the regulations refers to the two different ways that starts will be called off.

Article 46.1 references a “delayed start”, which occurs when the formation lap has not started and the cars are still on the grid.

Then there is an “aborted start”, which happens when the formation lap has started. It references that “all cars should return to the grid and all competitors will be informed of the likely delay using the official messaging system.”

In Brazil, Norris and a majority of other cars were already on the grid when the aborted start message came through.

Stella thinks that it might make sense to clear up the expected procedures to ensure that everyone understands better what to do in repeat scenarios in the future.

“Overall, we think this is a very benign situation,” he said. “If anything, it should give the opportunity to clarify a little bit what to do in these cases because the call came very late, when Lando had been sitting on pole position for a long time.

“If there was an aborted start, I think the conditions were present for a long time to give it. So this confused the driver a bit.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has insisted there was no reason for Sergio Perez not to have followed Max Verstappen through the field and scored big points at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

After another Q2 elimination in qualifying, albeit just a place behind team-mate Verstappen before the three-time champion’s five-place grid penalty, Perez started 12th. Yet, after a race that included an early spin, another battle with potential successor Liam Lawson and a red-flag delay, the Mexican could only manage to make up one place by the end of the race.

That was in stark contrast to Verstappen, who remarkably recovered from 17th on the grid to take his first victory since the Spanish Grand Prix.

“It was a difficult race for Checo,” explained Horner in the aftermath.

“Spinning at the beginning of the race drops him down. It was an opportunity in the constructors’ to take a big chunk out of both Ferrari and McLaren and unfortunately, we’ve not been able to capitalise on that.

Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB20, sprays mud as he tries to rejoin after a spin

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“Obviously, that’s frustrating, but we’ll go away and have a look at it and come back hopefully fighting hard in Vegas.”

On whether there was a technical reason holding Perez back from matching Verstappen’s charge through the field, Horner said: “Not that I’m [aware of]. There was nothing evident to me in the race.”

The failure to reach the points as McLaren and Ferrari remained ahead of Red Bull in the constructors’ standings in spite of Verstappen’s penalty has led to further pressure on Perez as his future remains in doubt.

Asked whether Red Bull had now reached the point at which a driver change is a necessity, Horner replied: “Everything in life is subjective.

“You’ve got to look at the facts. We’re working hard with Checo. He had a chassis change this weekend. I thought he drove a good [sprint] race but [the grand prix] wasn’t his day.”

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