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Lewis Hamilton has accused FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem of using “stereotypical” language with a “racial element” in his attempts to stop the broadcast of swearing during Formula 1 races. Ben Sulayem, the head of motorsport’s governing body, said F1 had to “differentiate between our sport – motorsport – and rap music”.
Hamilton said: “Saying ‘rappers’ is very stereotypical. If you think about it, most rappers are black.
“So when it says: ‘We are not like them’, those are the wrong choice of words. There is a racial element there.”
The FIA has not yet responded to a request for comment.Hamilton said he understood Ben Sulayem’s wider point, adding: “You forget that there are kids that are listening. So I agree in that sense. If you listen to some of the younger drivers, they’ve not got it yet and at some stage they possibly will.”
Ben Sulaymen’s comments came in an interview with Autosport,, external in which he suggested drivers could be hit with penalties for swearing over team radio in races.
Swear words are always bleeped out during TV broadcasts by F1, which delays the transmission of team radio conversations so they can be vetted for language.
Ben Sulayem said: “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].”
He said he understood that drivers were “in the heat of the moment” but added: “We have to be careful with our conduct. We need to be responsible people.
“And now with the technology, everything is going live and everything is going to be recorded. At the end of the day, we have to study that to see: do we minimise what is being said publicly?
“Because imagine you are sitting with your children and watching the race and then someone is saying all of this dirty language. I mean, what would your children or grandchildren say? What would you teach them if that is your sport?”
Several drivers pushed back against Ben Sulaymen’s remarks. World champion Max Verstappen said that the remarks could simply not be broadcast, adding: “You will swear anyway. If it’s not in this room maybe somewhere else. Everyone swears. Some people a bit more than others. It also depends a bit what language you speak. Of course, abuse is something else.
“You have to probably limit it or have a bit of a delay that you can censor out a few things. That will help a lot more than putting bans on drivers because for example I couldn’t even say the f-word.
“And then, excuse me for the language but come on, what are we? Five-year-olds, six-year-olds? Even if a five-year-old or six-year-old is watching, I mean, they will eventually swear anyway even if their parents won’t or they will not allow it.
“When they grow up they will walk around with their friends and they will be swearing. So you know this is not changing anything.”
And his title rival Lando Norris of McLaren said: “They can just not play the radios, so it’s quite simple from their side, we are the guys in the heat of the moment under stress, under pressure, fighting, having big crashes, it’s just a lot easier for them to say than for us to do.
“We are out there putting our hearts on the line trying to race people, we’re giving it our all, our heart rates are so high, we are just putting our passion and love into it.
“Of course there is going to be some bad words on the other side of it, but that’s just cos we’re trying and we want to give our best and we feel hard done by when things don’t go right, because of excitement and stuff.”
It is the latest in a series of controversies in which Ben Sulayem has found himself embroiled since becoming FIA president in December 2021.
The FIA is being sued by Susie Wolff, the director of the F1 Academy for aspiring female drivers, after it launched a conflict of interest inquiry into her and her husband Toto, the Mercedes team principal, last year.
He was earlier this year cleared of interfering with race results following allegations by a whistleblower.
In other controversies, he received a cease-and-desist letter from F1’s lawyers following his reaction on social media to a story claiming Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment fund had tried to buy the sport.
And he has defended historical sexist remarks on his former website.
