Max Verstappen “simply does not agree” with Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s view on drivers’ swearing, a stand that the FIA president has doubled down on in the build-up to the F1 2025 season.

Last season Ben Sulayem earned the ire of several drivers when he called for a clamp down on swearing by the Formula 1 drivers, declaring F1 should “differentiate between our sport – motorsport – and rap music”.

Max Verstappen was punished for swearing in a press conference

Lewis Hamilton called him out for “stereotypical” language with a “racial element” while the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association sent a strongly-worded letter that pointed out the drivers are “adults” and do “not need to be given instructions via the media about matters as trivial as wearing of jewellery and underpants”.

But rather than backtrack, Ben Sulayem’s FIA doubled down by realising new stewards’ punishment guidelines. And on the list is ‘any misconduct’.

Misconduct, as per Article 12.2.1l includes ‘the general use of language (written or verbal), gesture and/or sign that is offensive, insulting, coarse, rude or abusive and might reasonably be expected or be perceived to be coarse or rude or to cause offence, humiliation or to be inappropriate’.

FIA issue new guidelines, but why?

👉 Explained: The real reasons behind the FIA’s new swearing guidelines

👉 Who is Mohammed Ben Sulayem? Everything you need to know about the FIA president

As of this season, that together with ‘words, deeds or writings that have caused moral injury or loss to the FIA’ will see Formula 1 drivers fined €40,000 for a first offence, €80,000 ‘plus 1-month suspension’ for a second while a third comes with a fine of €120,000 ‘plus 1-month suspension’ and a ‘deduction of Championship points’.

Saying the F-word three times could cost a driver a championship title.

It’s a sharp step up from last year’s punishments with Verstappen handed a day of community service when he said his car was “f***ed” in a press conference while Charles Leclerc was also fined for dropping an F-bomb in front of the media. His punishment, said the stewards, was mitigated by his quick apology.

Such was Verstappen’s anger at the FIA’s antics that the reigning World Champion staged a silent protest as he refused to speak in the FIA press conferences and instead held media briefings in the paddock.

He cooled his stance in the final races of the season and also served his one-day community service penalty in Rwanda ahead of the FIA’s official prize giving where he collected his F1 Drivers’ Championship trophy.

Dutch racing driver Richard Verschoor, who will compete in the F2 series this season and could therefore face a third of Verstappen’s 2025 monetary fines for offending the FIA on the FIA’s base fine figure, says he gets his compatriot’s viewpoint.

“I fully support Max’s point,” Verschoor told F1Maximaal. “And that he simply did not agree with it. I think it’s a bit far-fetched sometimes.

“Especially about… It’s just a sport with emotion. Sometimes we get a bit angry and then emotion comes to the surface, and then you start swearing.

“That kind of thing is a shame. But look, there’s something to be said for both sides…

“It’s a sport too. You have to be in that emotion because that’s what makes it such a fun sport. And we race at three hundred kilometres per hour on that track. It doesn’t always go well and it’s all roses.

“It can sometimes get quite intense, and that should be said.”

Verstappen has yet to publicly comment on the new FIA punishment guidelines but his team, Red Bull, made their thoughts know in a cheeky response on social media.

A post on the team’s official Threads account featured an image from Verstappen’s impromptu media session in the Singapore GP paddock, with an emoji of a face holding a finger to its lips and the accompanying caption: “If we speak…”

The caption is a reference to a famous internet clip of Jose Mourinho, the former Chelsea football manager who saw two of his players sent off in a 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa in 2014.

In the full clip, when asked about the referee Mourinho says: “I prefer really not to speak. If I speak, I am in big trouble. In big trouble. And I don’t want to be in big trouble.”

Read next: Johnny Herbert’s Australian GP plans scrapped after FIA exit confirmed