Carlos Sainz has become a director of the Formula 1 drivers’ body the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association.
The 30-year-old Spaniard, who has moved from Ferrari to Williams for this season, fills the vacancy left by four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, who retired from F1 at the end of 2022 and stepped down as a GPDA director last year.
In a post by the GPDA on Instagram announcing the appointment, Sainz said: “I am passionate about my sport and think we drivers have a responsibility to do all we can to work with the stakeholders to forward the sport in many aspects.
“So I’m very happy and proud to do my part by taking on the directors’ role in the GPDA.”
Sainz joins chairman Alex Wurz, Mercedes driver George Russell and Anastasia Fowle as a GPDA leader.
Wurz said: “We are delighted to welcome Carlos as a GPDA director. He has been an active and engaged member of the GPDA for several years and we sincerely appreciate his commitment in stepping up to this vital role.”
The GPDA was formed back in the early 1960s and has predominantly focused on safety matters.
For example, the GPDA and Wurz were instrumental in the adoption of the ‘halo’ head protection device in F1 for the 2018 season. It has since saved a number of lives in serious accidents.
But in recent years the drivers have found themselves increasingly at loggerheads with Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the president of governing body the FIA, who was elected in 2021.
Ben Sulayem’s actions have led to concerns among many stakeholders in F1, and the drivers are weighing up how to respond to his decision in January to codify a process by which drivers can end up facing a race ban if they swear.
The FIA has not clarified how these rules will be applied. World rally driver Adrien Fourmaux this month became the first driver to fall foul of the regulation and was a fined €10,000 for swearing in a TV interview at Rally Sweden.
Sainz has said this month that it is wrong to threaten F1 drivers with bans for swearing, although he agreed drivers should avoid bad language in news conferences and television interviews.
In November, the GPDA wrote an open letter to the FIA asking the governing body to treat them like adults, saying it felt fines were “not appropriate” forms of punishment and asking for transparency as to how they were spent.
They have received no response from the FIA on the matter.
The letter was a 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.
This follows other interventions by Ben Sulayem, such as a ban on jewellery, which have also irritated the drivers.