The flag can go out! We are only five weeks into 2023, but the international motorsport association has already made the best decision of the year. From now on, all political expressions in the Formula 1 paddock are prohibited. No more cows, no calves, no flowers and no bees. Racing cars only.
A relief. Let’s face it: the political display of some Formula 1 drivers took on crazy forms. It became a battle for the Correctness Cup, with Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel competing against each other. Points of view were not expressed for personal reasons, but to generate socially acceptable attention. Some call the new legislation questionable, but not me.
At a certain point you start to believe that the gentlemen will be whispered by spin doctors what they should protest against. Do not forget that freedom fighter Hamilton was the person who included a sentence in his Instagram stories, which suggested that he was not behind the accepted cure for the virus. I remember when I told my first lie. A year and a half later, he was right there preaching about it. Bipolar Behavior or Strong Recommendation?
Don’t underestimate the extent to which the younger guard is influenced. A type of Max Verstappen will be the worst – he should try to emphasize his family sympathy for Geert Wilders, then the woke world will completely fall into the spots -, but people like Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon are at the forefront when the words responsibility and exemplary function are mentioned . It’s great that the FIA is making short shrift of that. No more frills, just racing.
Don’t worry: of course I understand how the fork is in the stem. The FIA, as hypocritical as it can be, is the last body to judge politics. The FIA is political. However, people are terrified. Ben Sulayem is under guardianship and the international association cannot use too much trouble. Imagine one of her superstars in Sakhir or Jeddah wearing a rainbow shoe, or someone in America using the words demented and president in one sentence.
The FIA is trying to save its furniture by preventing something that it has played into the hands for a long time. Drivers became billboards, didn’t actually know what they were protesting for. As if Vettel had been watching the mines in Canada and the bees in Austria for years. The virus recommendations of drivers evading measures are almost scandalous in retrospect.
A general ban is better, for everyone. I’m not in favor of gagging people, but the Correctness Cup became a gadget. Don’t think that there is one driver who defends a clear ideology, because if they do – see Verstappen’s political taste – they will race full throttle towards the cancel wall. That blood-irritating Nikita Mazepin was quite right when he stated that it ‘We Race As One‘-happening purely before the stage.
It is nice when policymakers have a clear strategy in mind. The FIA admits outright by means of the ban that it has failed. That’s just worrying.
By Rene Oudman
