A self-confessed football fanatic, Max Verstappen has channelled one of the sport’s great wordsmiths when asked about Formula 1’s swearing ban.
The four-time world champion got himself in hot water last season when he described his Red Bull car as ‘f****d’ and there could be more punishments on the way.
Verstappen was handed a £33,000 penalty for the incident and ordered to do community service, something he protested about and he was backed by his fellow drivers.
Now though, there’s no debate over cursing, with F1’s governing body, the FIA codifying punishments in their 2025 regulations.
And if there was any doubt about their seriousness, World Rally Championship driver Adrien Fourmaux was given a €10,000 fine for swearing during a live broadcast on Saturday.
That put the swearing debate back in the news cycle, and it was something Verstappen was unsurprisingly asked about during the F1 75 launch event in London.
“Yeah I prefer not to speak about that, I’ll get in trouble,” he said. “So it’s better not to answer that.”
The comments were eerily similar to some legendary remarks by Jose Mourinho in 2014.
The then-Chelsea manager claimed a piece of Premier League folklore when asked about refereeing decisions in a 1-0 defeat against Aston Villa and replied: “I prefer not to speak. If I speak I am in big trouble.”
Verstappen is undoubtedly aware of that meme, given that Mourinho managed the English team he supports, Manchester United, as he told talkSPORT in 2023.
The PSV Eindhoven fan also revealed that he regularly chats to Liverpool captain and countryman Virgil van Dijk, while he’s known to bring a PlayStation to races for FIFA matches.
Verstappen will also know that the FIA aren’t joking around with their swearing ban, given that they’ve now used it for the first time in another of their leading series – the World Rally Championship.
talkSPORTVerstappen had a cheeky grin on his faced as he channelled Mourinho[/caption]
SkyMourinho’s line is part of his legend[/caption]
Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux was handed a €10,000 [£8000] penalty with a further €20,000 [£16,000] suspended on Saturday after he said “We f****d up yesterday,” during a live broadcast at Rally Sweden.
As expected, Verstappen wasn’t the only one to comment on the so-called ‘swearing ban’ with numerous drivers hitting out at the FIA and president Mohammed Ben Sulayem over a lack of communication in recent years.
One of the most vocal critics has been Mercedes’ George Russell, who is the director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA).
When asked for his thoughts on the latest developments, he commented: “I think as an individual, like I said last year, it is actually going quite far with everything.
“As drivers, we continue to show personality. I do think there is merit in saying that there is no need in an environment like this [media duties].
“But ultimately – especially for the guys where English isn’t their first language, the first thing you get taught are the swear words.
“And the first Italian words he (new teammate Kimi Antonelli) has taught me are the swear words.
“I don’t really know to be honest, and I don’t have much more to say on it than that.”
