WRC Drivers Protest FIA Swearing Ban By Refusing To Speak English On Camera
A unified group of World Rally Championship's Rally1 class drivers and co-drivers — as well as a few of the WRC2 participants — announced ahead of this weekend's Safari Rally Kenya they would prevent unintended televised swears by refusing to speak, or speaking only in their native non-English tongues.
The recently created the World Rally Drivers' Alliance union was founded in reaction to the FIA's draconian implementation of swearing penalties. Following Wednesday's shakedown stages in Kenya the WoRDA union drivers stuck to their guns and either said nothing or replied in French or Welsh instead, and it is the understanding of Dirtfish journalists on the ground in Africa that the drivers intend to keep this policy through the full weekend.
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem went to war over swearing in sanctioning body events in 2024 when the focus was turned on F1 drivers and particularly Max Verstappen. Verstappen was given a community service sentence for dropping an F when describing his car's handling during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying session. He later, similar to the WRC drivers, went silent during a post-session media pen interview to avoid saying any further curses. When Hyundai driver Adrien Fourmaux let an f-bomb slip in a stage-end interview during this year's Rally Sweden, he was given a $36,000 fine for the infraction.
What's next?
Following Fourmaux's fine, the WoRDA issued a lengthy statement condemning the fine and the regulation, saying that drivers packed with adrenaline after a stage should be allowed to express themselves naturally, and that the "severity of sanctions for minor, isolated, and unintentional language lapses" had reached an "unacceptable level." In the February 24 statement the WoRDA asked for a meeting with Ben Sulayem to discuss the matter. It is understood that no such discussion has occurred.
2019 World champion Ott Tänak explained to media in Africa why drivers were silent. "Unfortunately this time we need to go a bit different... Like you can see already here, adrenaline can be quite high at the end of the stage, so unfortunately regarding the latest actions we can't give any end of stage comments until it's again comfortable for the drivers. That's the way it is at the moment. Hopefully the solution comes soon and we can go back to normal."
Can't we all be adults about this?