Lando Norris facing major punishment over obscene gesture?

There are all kinds of jokes we could make about the FIA's stance on swearing and even apparently drivers using benign words like "bloody" these days, a stance that has resulted in multiple penalties, most notably Max Verstappen's fine and community service requirement last year.

Those rules have only gotten stricter as FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has cracked down on drivers using foul language.

But does the middle finger salute count as bad language?

Lando Norris, frustrated over his inability to get around Verstappen for several laps in Miami's Grand Prix at Miami International Autodrome, flipped off Verstappen in the heat of battle.

Norris has made it a habit of letting Verstappen get into his head, as we have seen at least once almost every weekend this year. Perhaps most notable was the incident in Japan, where Verstappen was well ahead of Norris at pit exit, and Norris proceeded to intentionally drive off the track and then blame Verstappen with a slew of complaints to his team over the radio.

He later admitted that he knew Verstappen didn't do anything wrong, giving fans a perfect illustration of what the "heat of battle" can do to a driver whose head has proven to be quite easy for rival drivers to get into.

But I digress.

If swearing is a punishable offense, what about the middle finger?

If "bloody" is now considered a naughty word, surely swearing (without actually using words) will draw the ire of the FIA president as well.

That said, Norris probably isn't going to be penalized for it, and as petulant as it was, given the fact that he was literally racing for position, he probably shouldn't be. Having said that, the fact that this is even a discussion is a talking point in and of itself, but that is where we are now when it comes to the FIA.

Verstappen himself used the middle finger during preseason testing, and he was not penalized, so it's more likely than not that Norris' incident won't even be discussed.

Still, again, the fact that the Verstappen incident was even a story is alarming in itself, as is another recent development involving Sulayem and his overreaching set of non-racing-related rules.

Sulayem's anti-swearing stance is said to be expanding in the near future to a broader reach of "driver conduct", so don't be surprised if the FIA start docking drivers 50 points for flipping the bird. It's not that crazy to think about at this point, especially since, believe it or not, Norris has childishly flipped off fans before.