Fake swearing? F1 censored Verstappen calling his penalty "really lovely" · RaceFans

Fake swearing? F1 censored Verstappen calling his penalty “really lovely” · RaceFans

April 22, 2025

in Racing

Reading Time: 2 mins read

Max Verstappen has a fame for making off-colour remarks however Method One Administration appeared to censor one in every of his radio feedback in error yesterday.

The Pink Bull driver’s response to his five-second time penalty was censored within the stay world tv broadcast of yesterday’s race. Nonetheless the unique message seems to comprise no profanity.

The FIA launched laws earlier this 12 months which outline swearing as a type of misconduct. Nonetheless no driver has been penalised for swearing on their radio and Carlos Sainz Jnr prevented a penalty for utilizing a swear phrase in a press convention earlier this month.

FOM replayed a part of Verstappen’s change along with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase on their tv broadcast with one phrase censored (under). Footage from Verstappen’s onboard channel signifies he sarcastically referred to as his penalty “actually beautiful.”

Verstappen usually makes use of an identical expression, “merely beautiful”, on his radio. He utilized to trademark the phrase final 12 months to make use of it in a line of vogue merchandise.

Nonetheless Verstappen has tended to make use of profanity extra incessantly on his radio than his rivals do, notably in final 12 months’s Hungarian Grand Prix. FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem subsequently complained about drivers swearing on their radios, following which Verstappen mentioned FOM shouldn’t broadcast it.

F1 has been criticised for allegedly misrepresenting drivers’ radio messages already this 12 months. It denied deliberately omitting a key remark by Lewis Hamilton through the Chinese language Grand Prix, which appeared he disobeyed an instruction from his group.

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FOM has been approached for remark.