Analysis: Verstappen shows his petty side when FIA foolishly punishes him for cursing

Max Verstappen said a bad word — it started with an F — in a formal news conference to describe how his race car was performing. The man who called for Verstappen to be punished also drew sharp criticism for his own choice of words.

Verstappen's sanction for his egregious behavior? The three-time Formula 1 champion was ordered by the sport's governing body to complete a day of community service because the FIA has apparently banned cursing.

The crackdown had been foreshadowed — Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff were both summoned to speak to the stewards last November about their language at a news conference in Las Vegas — and FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem publicly rebuked cursing earlier this month.

Motorsport.com reported that the FIA had asked Formula One Management to better limit the naughty language broadcast during races. While the curse words — said on team radio that is accessible to the public — are bleeped out on television, Ben Sulayem found the frequency of the poor language unsettling.

“We have to differentiate between our sport — motorsport — and rap music,” Ben Sulayem said. “We’re not rappers, you know.”

Lewis Hamilton, who already felt he'd been personally targeted by Ben Sulayem when the president banned the wearing of jewelry during competition upon election, felt the comments had a racial element to them.

“I don’t like how he has expressed it. Saying ‘rappers’ is very stereotypical," said Hamilton, the only Black driver in F1. "If you think about it, most rappers are Black. So it says, ‘We are not like them.’ So I think those are the wrong choice of words and there is a racial element there.”

So Verstappen shouldn't have been surprised when the FIA actually slapped his wrist for cursing. The Dutch driver responded with his own form of protest by trolling every remaining news conference of the Singapore Grand Prix.

It felt a bit “I’m just here so I won’t get fined” Marshawn Lynch-like in that Verstappen showed up to his required media obligations, but offered only the briefest of answers. He made clear he was doing so because he no longer felt he could speak freely in official F1 settings.

He invited reporters to follow him out to the paddock for an unmonitored and unfiltered exchange both Saturday and Sunday, when he added this over-policing to the list of reasons why the 26-year-old may have a very short F1 career.

Verstappen was the youngest driver to ever start an F1 race, the youngest F1 race winner, and has made clear he doesn't plan to stick around to become the oldest winner in the sport's history. This latest drama may hasten his timeline for retirement.

"For sure, these kinds of things definitely decide my future,” Verstappen said. “When you can’t be yourself, or you have to deal with these kinds of silly things, I think now I’m at the stage of my career that you don’t want to be dealing with this all the time. It’s really tiring.”

He was also critical of Carlos Sainz Jr. being sanctioned for crossing the track on foot under a red flag after Sainz crashed in qualifying.

“I mean, what are we talking about? He knows what he’s doing. We’re not stupid. These kinds of things, like when I saw it getting noted, I was like, ‘My God,'" Verstappen said.

F1 considers its drivers the most elite in the world, so it isn't wrong for Ben Sulayem to want to hold them to a high standard. But his standards are likely rooted in his own beliefs and not in sync to the realities of professional sports.

Globally, audiences are accustomed to hearing an occasional curse word caught on a live mic during a sporting event. Sometimes the words are said casually because what's considered a slur in your country might be commonly accepted slang in another.

But many times the cursing is out of anger or frustration because of the high stakes, minimal margins for error, and intense effort put into each athletes craft.

And, the cursing is very rarely done openly for the entire world to hear. In racing, specifically, it is a privilege that spectators can eavesdrop on team communications over the radio. The FIA could eliminate that capability if it was truly worried about offending listeners.

In the case of Verstappen — or even Wolff and Vasseur — their cursing came in news conferences that aren't designed to be consumed by the general public. F1 at any time could stop cutting clips and posting them online and truly make the sessions media-only.

But F1 is now owned by a media company and Liberty Media knows exactly what it is doing in delivering content any way possible.

Verstappen is right. This all seems rather silly, to the point of childish, especially from an organization that has refused all year to comment on the complaint against Red Bull boss Christian Horner filed by a suspended employee to the FIA ethics committee.

The same ethics committee, mind you, that investigated and cleared within a month a pair of whistleblower complaints filed against Ben Sulayem. Susie Wolff, the wife of the Mercedes boss and head of F1's all-female F1 Academy, has also filed a criminal complaint in France against the FIA over its brief December conflict of interest investigation into the alleged sharing of confidential information between husband and wife.

Ben Sulayem has made strides in cleaning up online abuse, has fought to get Michael Andretti and Cadillac onto the grid and tackled other legitimate issues facing motorsports and F1. But some of the fights he's honed in on seem small and Hamilton has a right to question if they are personal.

In the case of Verstappen saying a bad word, it seems the champion was punished to make an example. Verstappen made sure it backfired to look as silly as it is.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands, left, talks to team principal Christian Horner during the second practice session of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, in Singapore, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain, left, talks with second placed Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands after qualifying session of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, in Singapore, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Analysis: Verstappen shows his petty side when FIA foolishly punishes him for cursing

Analysis: Verstappen shows his petty side when FIA foolishly punishes him for cursing

ST. LOUIS (AP) — World champions Ilia Malinin and the ice dance duo of Madison Chock and Evan Bates will anchor one of the strongest U.S. Figure Skating teams in history when they head to Italy for the Milan Cortina Olympics in less than a month.

Malinin, fresh off his fourth straight national title, will be the prohibitive favorite to follow in the footsteps of Nathan Chen by delivering another men's gold medal for the American squad when he steps on the ice at the Milano Ice Skating Arena.

Chock and Bates, who won their record-setting seventh U.S. title Saturday night, also will be among the Olympic favorites, as will world champion Alysa Liu and women's teammate Amber Glenn, fresh off her third consecutive national title.

U.S. Figure Skating announced its full squad of 16 athletes for the Winter Games during a made-for-TV celebration Sunday.

"I'm just so excited for the Olympic spirit, the Olympic environment," Malinin said. “Hopefully go for that Olympic gold.”

Malinin will be joined on the men's side by Andrew Torgashev, the all-or-nothing 24-year-old from Coral Springs, Florida, and Maxim Naumov, the 24-year-old from Simsbury, Connecticut, who fulfilled the hopes of his late parents by making the Olympic team.

Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova were returning from a talent camp in Kansas when their American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter and crashed into the icy Potomac River in January 2025. One of the last conversations they had with their son was about what it would take for him to follow in their footsteps by becoming an Olympian.

“We absolutely did it,” Naumov said. “Every day, year after year, we talked about the Olympics. It means so much in our family. It's what I've been thinking about since I was 5 years old, before I even know what to think. I can't put this into words.”

Chock and Bates helped the Americans win team gold at the Beijing Games four years ago, but they finished fourth — one spot out of the medals — in the ice dance competition. They have hardly finished anywhere but first in the years since, winning three consecutive world championships and the gold medal at three straight Grand Prix Finals.

U.S. silver medalists Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik also made the dance team, as did the Canadian-born Christina Carreira, who became eligible for the Olympics in November when her American citizenship came through, and Anthony Ponomarenko.

Liu was picked for her second Olympic team after briefly retiring following the Beijing Games. She had been burned out by years of practice and competing, but stepping away seemed to rejuvenate the 20-year-old from Clovis, California, and she returned to win the first world title by an American since Kimmie Meissner stood atop the podium two decades ago.

Now, the avant-garde Liu will be trying to help the U.S. win its first women's medal since Sasha Cohen in Turin in 2006, and perhaps the first gold medal since Sarah Hughes triumphed four years earlier at the Salt Lake City Games.

Her biggest competition, besides a powerful Japanese contingent, could come from her own teammates: Glenn, a first-time Olympian, has been nearly unbeatable the past two years, while 18-year-old Isabeau Levito is a former world silver medalist.

"This was my goal and my dream and it just feels so special that it came true,” said Levito, whose mother is originally from Milan.

The two pairs spots went to Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea, the U.S. silver medalists, and the team of Emily Chan and Spencer Howe.

The top American pairs team, two-time reigning U.S. champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, were hoping that the Finnish-born Efimova would get her citizenship approved in time to compete in Italy. But despite efforts by the Skating Club of Boston, where they train, and the help of their U.S. senators, she did not receive her passport by the selection deadline.

“The importance and magnitude of selecting an Olympic team is one of the most important milestones in an athlete's life,” U.S. Figure Skating CEO Matt Farrell said, "and it has such an impact, and while there are sometimes rules, there is also a human element to this that we really have to take into account as we make decisions and what's best going forward from a selection process.

“Sometimes these aren't easy," Farrell said, “and this is not the fun part.”

The fun is just beginning, though, for the 16 athletes picked for the powerful American team.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Amber Glenn competes during the women's free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Alysa Liu skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Maxim Naumov skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Madison Chock and Evan Bates skate during the "Making the Team" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Gold medalist Ilia Malinin arrives for the metal ceremony after the men's free skate competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)