Although Max Verstappen joked he’ll court a swearing ban to be present at his child’s birth, Dutch pundit Ola Mol doubts he’d really do that unless pushed to the limit to take a stand.

Last year FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem ordered a clampdown on drivers swearing, leading to a day of community service for Verstappen who used the F-word during an FIA press conference.

Max Verstappen to court a swearing ban?

He responded to that punishment by staging a protest in which he’d only give short answers during the mandatory FIA press conferences before sharing his full thoughts with the media on the walk back to Red Bull’s hospitality.

Tensions ultimately died down and Verstappen served his day of community service in Rwanda in the build-up to end-of-season prize giving.

This year though, community service is the least of the Dutchman or his rivals’ worries as motorsport’s governing body has announced fines, suspensions and even the docking of World Championship points for anyone commits offences under Article 12. That includes misconduct, bad language and causing ‘moral injury’ to motorsport’s governing body.

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Verstappen, who is expecting a baby with his partner Kelly Piquet some time early this season, joked that the punishments could open the door for him to be present at the birth.

Speaking to Dutch publication Algemeen Dagblad, he said: “It’s possible [that I could miss a race], but I won’t do it. This is just part of being a Formula One driver. If it happens, it happens. I can’t do anything about it.

“Unfortunately, Formula One drivers don’t get any free time, but at the same time, I’m not the one who gives birth.

“Anything is possible, but in Formula 1 that doesn’t exist. You can’t take two months off… Or I have to be suspended because I have too many penalties for swearing.”

Long-time Ziggo Sport pundit Mol appreciated the four-time World Champion’s quip but doesn’t for a moment believe Verstappen would deliberately court a suspension. He may, however, find a way to avoid the early-weekend press conference scrum.

“That’s exactly the authenticity he has,” Mol said with a laugh to F1Maximaal.

“He wants to race so badly that he’s not really going to do that, but if we start imposing this kind of thing on him, he thinks: ‘then I’ll turn it my way’. I think it’s a very funny comment.

“Those Thursdays, Fridays, the press conferences, can be stolen from him. If the lights go out on Sunday, I don’t think he would miss an opportunity anytime soon.”

Speaking of Ben Sulayem’s clampdown in general, Mol fears it is banning drivers from being characters with their own voices.

“On the one hand I get it, on the other hand I don’t understand it,” he said. “You take a bit of emotion out of the sport. I think your head is in the sand if you think that in primary schools in the Netherlands, England or wherever, a young child doesn’t shout ‘oh shit’ when he hits his head.

“I don’t know if a federation should get involved in that. I think it’s up to the drivers and the team bosses themselves to have a good conversation about that, whether that is actually the role of the FIA.

“Today, the drivers are all employees of a mega-sized organisation, and that has become the Formula 1 team. They are employed by a team.

“In the past, I have seen Jacques Villeneuve standing on the stairs of the Honda motorhome, with five camera crews in the doorway. Someone asked him how the car was. He said: ‘I’ve never had such a **** car under my ass’.

“That wouldn’t happen anymore. It’s all corporate. And that makes sense, the stakes are much higher now.

“The men who had that in the past were Eddie Irvine, [Sebastian] Vettel in his way, but with intelligence. What I sometimes found difficult about Michael Schumacher was that he never really took a stand in certain matters. I sometimes thought that was a shame.”

He urged the FIA to leave the drivers alone.

“You can change certain things in this way,”he added. “If that (the FIA’s rules) are then imposed on you by the FIA, then I think that’s going too far.”

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