Formula 1: FIA dug their own hole with ongoing Max Verstappen issue

We are now 18 races into the record-breaking 24-race 2024 Formula 1 season, and the world championship battle between three-time reigning world champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull and McLaren's Lando Norris has been heating up for several months.

Yet the main focal point ahead of this past Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix at Marina Bay Street Circuit was drivers swearing.

FIA Mohammed Ben Sulayem called for drivers to cut down on swearing, and then Verstappen was penalized for swearing during a press conference. The stewards handed him “an obligation to accomplish some work of public interest”, meaning "community service", for using foul language.

I'm not here to lecture anybody on what's right or wrong. While I understand the argument that kids are going to swear anyway, I do think there's something to be said for casting athletes as role models and understanding that they are constantly being looked up to, and whether they want it or not, there is an element of responsibility that comes along with that.

Having said that, these athletes aren't a bunch of edgy teenagers looking to impress their friends or keyboard warriors typing naughty words and clicking send to get three likes on Twitter, either.

When you're in the heat of the moment, sometimes you say things you shouldn't. And the "heat of the moment" in Formula 1 tends to be peak "heat of the moment", with drivers going wheel to wheel at over 200 miles per hour.

Sure, some say things more than others, and certainly there are instances which would generally be considered more controllable than others.

But even then, these are athletes who are constantly hooked up to equipment which allows them to be heard by pretty much anybody. Athletes in other sports are not held under such a microscope.

Can you imagine, for example, if every single NFL player could be heard by every single fan during every single play?

It's not as if the drivers are swearing during live, internationally broadcast interviews. Even the inappropriate language said on in-race radios are bleeped out on such broadcasts; fans literally need to go out of their way to access the unfiltered versions.

The FIA could have handled this situation a heck (appropriate word choice) of a lot better here. I truly believe that, had they actually believed this was an issue worth addressing, it could have been addressed behind closed doors, and there would have been a little bit extra effort from the drivers to cut down on it.

Instead, the FIA president publicly blasted the entire grid.

The FIA made it look entirely unserious by approaching it the way they did, and because of it, they totally walked into the reaction they got, not just from the drivers themselves but from the fanbase. The entire fanbase is pretty much now united because a driver swore, including fans who don't condone swearing and/or don't do so themselves.

I still personally can't even believe we're having this discussion.

Another thing that's ridiculous is the whole element of community service. The whole idea of community service, in itself, is not at all a bad thing. Community service is "work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community contributing to a noble cause".

Fair enough, isn't it?

Yet the FIA have turned it into a complete joke based on how they've chucked it around, to the point where it's hard to blame the drivers for resenting the prospect of it.

Ordinarily, Lewis Hamilton telling another driver to snub community service would be somewhat eyebrow raising, if not hypocritical, but in this instance, maybe the one doing the community service should be Sulayem.

It was his own unwillingness to leave well enough alone, or at least address it in a somewhat adult-like manner, that led to all of this (admittedly somewhat comical) nonsense. He caused this problem, and now it's his mess to clean up (or, more than likely, make worse). It was not truly an issue until he turned it into one, and now the floodgates have opened.