The Bahrain Grand Prix stewards will not investigate Carlos Sainz Jnr for swearing in the FIA’s pre-race press conference yesterday.
The Williams driver said “shit happens” when discussing his fine during last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix for failing to attend the pre-race national anthem ceremony on time. RaceFans understands the stewards will not pursue the matter after Sainz apologised for his choice of words.
He was at risk of becoming the first F1 driver to face a penalty under new guidelines the FIA introduced three months ago to punish “misconduct”. These state a first offence is to be punished by a €10,000 fine, with a multiplier of four applied for competitors in the Formula 1 world championship, the most high-profile FIA series.
The rules were previously applied to World Rally Championship driver Adrien Fourmaux after he said “we fucked up” in an interview for the WRC’s official streaming service Rally.TV in February. A multiplier of three is applied to WRC competitors but the stewards applied mitigating circumstances in Fourmaux’s case, fining him €10,000 with a further €20,000 suspended.
The stewards noted “there is no evidence to suggest that [Fourmaux] meant to cause offence to any other party” and “the driver immediately recognised the inappropriate nature of the comment and issued an unprompted apology to the stewards and the FIA” followed by a further apology on social media.
Sainz was fined €10,000 last weekend, with a further €10,000 suspended, for his late arrival to the ceremony. The driver insisted he had only been five seconds late, due to a medical complaint.
The Williams driver became a director of the Grand Prix Drivers Association earlier this year. The GPDA has strongly criticised the FIA’s use of fines to penalise drivers for swearing.
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