Formula 1 drivers face race bans if they repeatedly swear or criticise the sport’s governing body under new rules introduced this year.
Changes to the FIA’s sporting code for the 2025 season codify the steps to a potential race ban for drivers deemed guilty of such offences.
They mean that if a driver commits three such offences they are at risk of a “one-month suspension plus deduction of championship points”.
The Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) said it had “no comment on that matter for the time being”.
Multiple sources have told BBC Sport that “a lot of” people at the FIA were against the move.
One source said it was pushed through on a “snap e-vote and with no consultation with other stakeholders or the GPDA or the FIA’s own drivers’ commission”.
Another said it was “not right” to act in this way and questioned why this could not have been scheduled for discussion at the next meeting of the world motorsport council.
The changes mark the latest in a series of moves by the FIA which have been seen as attempts to stifle dissent or criticism of the president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
The most recent was a set of changes to the FIA statutes that opponents said would reduce accountability at the FIA, which were introduced in December at the end of a a year in which a series of allegations had been made about the conduct of Ben Sulayem.
And they come less than two months after GPDA director George Russell, the Mercedes F1 driver, said he and his colleagues were “a bit fed up with” the FIA leadership.
The changes for this year define heavy fines and a rising sequence of punishment for drivers guilty of breaching the sporting code.
F1 drivers and others in top-level championships such as world rallying, world endurance and Formula E are subject to fines four times the standard amount.
For international-level drivers, a first offence is punishable by a 40,000 euro (£33,800) fine; a second offence by an 80,000 euro (£67,600) fine and a suspended one-month suspension from competition; and a third offence by a 120,000 euro (£101,000) fine and one-month suspension.
The penalties apply to all FIA licence holders, which would include F1 team principals.
An FIA spokesperson said the changes were an attempt to “further enhance transparency and consistency in decision-making”.
The spokesperson added: “The aim of this new appendix is to provide clear guidance to stewards regarding the penalties for violations of specific international sporting code articles.
“By establishing a more structured framework, the FIA seeks to ensure that penalties are applied uniformly and transparently, benefiting both stewards and drivers/competitors.
“Stewards have the authority to decide what penalty to enforce in the event of a breach of the the international sporting code and/or the applicable FIA regulations.
“Stewards retain the discretion to take into account any mitigating and/or aggravating circumstances as well as the nature and location of the event, to tailor the penalty to the specific situation.”
The FIA did not respond to questions as to the method of passing the vote.
Last year, stewards did not have it within their power to impose a race ban on a driver.
The spokesperson added: “All major governing bodies have similar rules/fines to protect the integrity of the sport. The FIA is not alone in fining competitors for misconduct.”
How did we get here?
Last November, the GPDA wrote an open letter to the FIA asking the governing body to treat them like “adults”, saying it considered fines “not appropriate” for motorsport and asking for transparency about how the fines were spent.
It has received no response.
The letter came in reaction to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen being ordered to “accomplish some work of public interest” after swearing in an official news conference at the Singapore Grand Prix in September.
Verstappen appeared at a grassroots motorsport development event in Rwanda, alongside Ben Sulayem, before December’s FIA Awards ceremony in the capital Kigali.
The latest changes to the sporting code will be widely considered as an attempt to gag the drivers and a demonstration of Ben Sulayem’s sensitivity to criticism.
There are two key clauses in the sporting code which will concern the drivers:
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the definition of a breach as “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 offense, humiliation or to be inappropriate”, plus “assaulting (elbowing, kicking, punching, hitting, etc)”, and “incitement to do any of the above”
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and the forbidding of “any words, deeds or writings that have caused moral injury or loss to the FIA, its bodies, its members or its executive officers, and more generally on the interest of motor sport and on the values defended by the FIA”
Earlier this week, before these changes emerged, Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu was asked a general question about his level of satisfaction with the FIA.
He said: “Don’t write it (in a) headline: ‘Ayao says FIA is in a mess,’ but that’s what everybody thinks. That’s what everybody experiences. I don’t know what to say. It’s not great, is it? Seriously.”
Asked to expand on his remarks, Komatsu said: “I don’t want to get into that political battle.”