SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Formula One stewards fined Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc 10,000 euros ($10,834.00), with half the sum suspended, for swearing in a post-race press conference at the Mexico City Grand Prix last Sunday.
The punishment comes after Red Bull’s triple world champion Max Verstappen was ordered in September to carry out “work of public interest” for swearing during a Singapore Grand Prix press conference.
Stewards said in a statement at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Friday that the Monegasque’s breach was not as bad as Verstappen’s.
Verstappen had alluded, somewhat sorely, to Leclerc’s language when he appeared in an FIA Prix press conference on Thursday.
“Apparently it only counts for me anyway because, you know, after the race in Mexico someone was swearing,” the Dutch driver told reporters then, without naming names.
Stewards at the Brazilian race summoned Leclerc on Friday, acting on a report from the governing FIA’s media delegate and after reviewing a written transcript.
They said the Ferrari driver had answered “a somewhat leading question” about what he said to himself when he momentarily lost control towards the end of the race and was passed by McLaren’s Lando Norris.
“In response Leclerc used coarse language being the accurate recollection of what he thought to himself at the time. Leclerc immediately realized his error and apologised,” the stewards said in a statement.
“The Stewards noted that the language was not directed at anyone or any group and that Leclerc immediately apologised.”
They said Leclerc had expressed his regret at the hearing for “a momentary lack of judgment” and understood his responsibility as a role model.
“The Stewards do not consider that this breach reached the same level as the most recent case and as such chose to levy a fine of 10,000 euros with 5,000 suspended pending no repeat within 12 months.”
Verstappen’s punishment, in which he used a profanity to describe the state of his car, came after FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem had urged drivers to watch their language, comparing them to rappers.
($1 = 0.9230 euros)
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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