FIA president: 'People thought I would make Verstappen clean toilets'

Max Verstappen was "nervous" over what his punishment for swearing in an F1 press conference would be, FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has said.

The head of the governing body also suggested that prior to confirmation the Dutchman would appear at a Rwanda Automobile Club (RAC) grassroots development event ahead of the FIA end-of-season prize-giving gala in Kigali, people thought the four-time F1 drivers' champion would be made to clean toilets.

Swearing has become a hot button issue in F1 since Verstappen used the F-word ahead of last season's Singapore Grand Prix, the incident his aforementioned punishment was derived from.

That came just hours after Ben Sulayem had used the press to articulate his feelings on profanity in the championship and his desire to clamp down on it.

After spirited exchanges between the FIA president and F1 drivers and team principals in the media over the final months of the year, the governing released new stewards' penalty guidelines ahead of the new season, which include substantial fines - and even suspensions and the docking of championship points - for swearing.

Ben Sulayem does not believe it should be difficult for drivers to curb the use of foul language, arguing they are not children. However, the 63-year-old does view them as his own - albeit adults, presumably. 

"I see them as my children," he said at an FIA stewarding summit in Madrid last week, as reported by Spanish publication Diario AS.

"Look at Verstappen and his punishment with community service, people thought that the president of the FIA ​​was going to send him to clean the toilets."

"I spoke to him in Qatar, he was nervous, I suggested that he inspire girls and boys and he thought it was very good. He went to Rwanda [to serve his punishment], he hugged them, it was very good for them."

Ben Sulayem: 'It is not too much to ask...'

Ben Sulayem expanded on his central claim that even when in an F1 car, drivers should be able to limit their use of swear words.

Whilst most within motorsport agree there is no need for expletives in calmer, controlled environments, like press conferences, the FIA president's expectation of prohibiting free expression, or rather raw emotion and reactions, from within the cockpit is a more divisive opinion.

Nonetheless, Ben Sulayem, who has not ruled out shutting down the use of team radio in F1, does not feel he is asking too much of the drivers to me mindful of younger audiences.

"Even Toto Wolff was surprised that his son, under ten years old, was swearing that he heard the drivers say," he claimed to support his view.

"That is not what we want at the FIA. If you control yourself in an F1 car, you can control your words... It is not too much to ask and it is not new, they are FIA ​​rules written since 1972."