The FIA has sparked renewed debate by giving Charles Leclerc a less severe penalty than Max Verstappen for a similar use of coarse language.
Verstappen, after saying the "F-word" during the FIA press conference on media day recently in Singapore, was assigned a day of community service. However, after the Mexican GP, Ferrari's Leclerc also uttered "f*ck" in the post-race press conference, promptly apologizing as he realized his error.
The FIA's reaction to Leclerc's incident remained quiet until Friday at the Brazilian GP, where he was summoned to the stewards and fined 10,000 euros—half of which is suspended for a year.
"What Leclerc did was worse than what I did," Verstappen remarked. "It was a much more important meeting with the media, with more people present. But, you know, I'm not going to waste any more of my time on this. It is what it is."
In its ruling, the FIA noted that Leclerc's use of language came in response to a "somewhat leading question" about his near-loss of control in Mexico, explaining that the remark reflected his genuine immediate reaction. "Leclerc immediately realised his error and apologised," the stewards stated, also noting that he "expressed his regret for his momentary lack of judgment" during the hearing at Interlagos.
The swearing issue has exasperated many F1 experts. Kees van de Grint, former Bridgestone and Ferrari engineer, voiced his frustration: "I don't like the F-word either, but that happens spontaneously. You're allowed to make a mistake. Rules are rules, but to start talking about this again days later? What is this all about?"
Former F1 driver Christijan Albers echoed the sentiment, also stating on Viaplay, "I'm also completely done with it. It's a great season, and all we're talking about is idiotic track limits and that swearing is not allowed."
