Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) chairman Alex Wurz hopes F1 will “protect the drivers” from punishments under the FIA’s contentious new stewards’ penalty guidelines.

Ahead of the 2025 F1 season, drivers can now be hit with substantial fines, race bans and championship points deductions for indiscretions such as swearing and speaking out against the governing body.

The Austrian wants the championship, that nowadays controls its own television feed, to help support those racing in the series by bleeping out foul language, something that has become a hot-button issue in F1 following Max Verstappen’s use of the F-word in an FIA press conference at last season’s Singapore Grand Prix.

Wurz does not believe any drivers want to actively “rebel” against the guidelines, which has been added to the FIA’s International Sporting Code, but did emphasise how difficult it can be for them “in the heat of the moment” during races.

“It’s a big topic, obviously,” Wurz told RacingNews365. “Maybe bigger in the media than it is within our [the GPDA’s] ranks.

“I think everyone is aware that drivers are role models, that there is a responsibility coming from that and with that.

“And I don’t know any one of the drivers who want to rebel, but we have to also see that in the heat of the moment, there are some times where maybe a word slips out of your brain through the mouth, and then it’s on a microphone.

“So we also hope that the controllers of the [television] feeds use the beeps and also protect the drivers, in a sense [and that] as a whole industry, we are giving a good example to the world, to the young kids.”

Protecting younger audiences

Protecting younger audiences from bad language is something Wurz places a premium on, drawing on his own experience as a father to inform his view.

The former F1 driver wants to see better and more open lines of communication between the FIA, F1, and its drivers to best remedy the situation around swearing.

“I have young kids, I want them to grow up as protected as possible, but there is a real world out there as well,” he said.

“So I would think if you have direct communication with each other, aiming to give achievable targets together, then we will achieve that.

“That’s what we’ve done in the past, the last few years, the GPDA – and I’m the chairman of this organisation.

“We are always happy if we’re having a direct dialogue with the key stakeholders.”