By Jagannadh Rao
Formula One is the pinnacle of motorsport, and happens to be a massive global platform followed by more than a billion people every single year. It is therefore the responsibility of the governing body (the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, more commonly known as the FIA) to ensure that such a platform that has been given to numerous drivers, team members and shareholders, is not misused in any manner. I wish to throw some light on a particularly worrying trend of hypocrisy that scores of motorsport fans have noticed when it comes to Formula One.
To back up the accusations I am about to put forward with context, I must start off with the impact of the global movement against racism in 2020 on Formula One. The death of George Floyd saw a rise in anti-racism protests, rallies and awareness campaigns all around the world even amidst a deadly pandemic, and had reached the world of Formula One as well. This gave rise to the #WeRaceAsOne initiative, an ongoing awareness campaign by Formula One that aims to denounce discrimination and dastardly behaviour of any kind, and to promote the highest standard of conducting oneself among all the members of the sport. Along with that, many drivers also took a knee before every Grand Prix to show solidarity to the communities most affected by racism and the Black Lives Matter movement. While these are undoubtedly steps in the right direction, since the beginning of the campaign, Formula One doesn’t seem to be practicing its preachings.
In 2020, the FIA and F1 came together with sponsors to announce that from 2021, a race will be held at the newly built street circuit in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The very fact that Formula One even considered a country like Saudi Arabia, a country known for its brutal human rights record and appalling ways of dealing with political dissent, poses a threat to the grassroots of the #WeRaceAsOne movement. The fact that F1 would sacrifice the integrity of their own awareness campaign to bring in extra cash from wealthy Saudi promoters is essentially shooting themselves in the foot in terms of actually abiding by an initiative that they themselves started. Formula One also continues to race on tracks like China, Bahrain and Russia, with money being given preference over the delicate maintenance of F1’s own rather lofty social behavioural standards. As an alternative, going back to popular tracks like the Sepang track in Malaysia, the Magny-Cours circuit in France etc. would not only show F1’s commitment to their initiative but would also bring back fan-favourite circuits that will satisfy long-term fans. However, nothing changes the fact that Formula 1 is a money-driven sport out of necessity, and sometimes, such alternatives may not be feasible for the long term future of the sport. Taking that into account, the FIA must at least make an effort to let it be known that F1 and the FIA denounces any activities in countries they are racing in order to provide some sort of solace to the morally outraged F1 communities.
Secondly, a glaring instance of racism from Red Bull superstar Max Verstappen where he was caught using a racist term that is offensive to the people of Mongolia to insult Racing Point driver Lance Stroll was all but ignored by the FIA. The superstardom that Verstappen enjoys in the sport undoubtedly gave him a cushion to fall back on, and the concerns raised by Mongolian Heritage Groups went largely unnoticed and Max was let off scot-free. While Max has been an incident-prone driver off the track, his unbelievable performances on track have undoubtedly biased stakeholders against actually taking decisive action in response to some of the offences he’s committed, for instance, flipping off a journalist in an official FIA press conference as well as punching a driver post-race at the Brazilian GP in 2018. In other sports, football for instance, physical abuse certainly leads to red cards and suspended bans for players, and in Luis Suarez’s case, a year long ban as well. Clearly, F1 isn’t prepared to take drastic action especially against one of its most marketable assets.
Finally, and perhaps the most terrible of all oversights by F1, newly signed Haas F1 team driver Nikita Mazepin, a few days after he was announced, posted a video on his Instagram story where he appeared to grope a woman on camera against her will. The video drew immediate backlash from the fan community, and both Haas F1 team and the Formula One Group wasted no time in condemning the ‘abhorrent’ actions of Nikita Mazepin. A mass outcry on social media by the F1 community denouncing Mazepin called for his immediate firing and for F1 to take action against the 21 year old. However, a month or so after the incident, Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner said that the matter had been dealt with internally and nothing would be discussed with the media, and that Haas would retain Mazepin for the 2021 season. For the sake of decency, elaborating further upon Mazepin’s exploits is not only distasteful to the readers but also to the one writing about it.
These incidents and anecdotes are a few of many, which goes to show that Formula 1’s commitments last only as long as it takes for them to be bought off. Not only has F1 made some rather questionable moves in the recent past, but what is disheartening is that they have spent twice as much of the time trying to manage the resulting PR fallout through cover-ups and bought media silences. This saddens multitudes of fans (and I say this as a passionate and long-term fan of Formula One myself) and is an impedance for motorsport to overcome bigotry to become a sustainable and equal platform.
https://www.espn.in/f1/story/_/id/30230063/mongolia-accuses-f1-verstappen-racist-derogatory-remarks
The Casual Observer 