Toto Wolff in support of FIA crackdown on driver conduct

A series of important changes have been developed by the FIA in recent weeks.

Aside from the latest technical directive (to be applied at the Spanish GP), the FIA have heightened punishments for drivers that swear or cause moral injury in press conferences.

This decision was met with plenty of controversy.

Beyond the standard fines, drivers could even lose World Championship points for behaviour considered inappropriate by the FIA.

According to Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff , these changes should be seen as a positive.

Wolff gives verdict on FIA clampdown There have always been penalties for drivers who swear or use otherwise offensive language in official press conferences.

Max Verstappen is the most recent example of someone being given community service after violating the FIAs guidelines.

However, punishing swearing is not necessarily the main point of contention following the latest changes.

This is perhaps the more controversial aspects of the FIAs new sporting code: 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.

Committing two offenses (within a two year period) will result in fines.

More significantly, a third offense could result in the deduction of an undisclosed number of World Championship points.

Irrespective of the severity of these punishments, Toto Wolff believes it is the correct course of action: I think we want to see emotions in the car, and there is ways of showing that or not.

We also have a responsibility towards all the spectators, he told Sky Sports.

And I believe particularly the non-native ones, the British, often dont understand how grave or how nuanced a word can be.

In that respect, any initiative is good and If we stop some of that bad swearing, thats positive.

Mixed reaction elsewhere in F1 What Toto Wolff did not directly address, however, is that criticisms of the FIA can also result in the loss of points.

Limitations to how drivers can criticise the FIA, at least to this extent, are unprecedented in Formula 1.

This was at the centre of concerns from fans and driver alike, given that these new measures will limit how drivers can express themselves.

According to sources from the BBC , a lot of employees at the FIA are against this move.

The reaction from the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers Association) has not been positive either: No, there was no consultation.

We have read that [the changes] through the media, Alex Wurz, head of the GPDA, told RacingNews365 .

Could be room for improvement that we [the FIA and GPDA] are working out together.

If theres a comparison with, for example, the NFL in America, they do have unionisation of NFL players.

And they are involved in the process.

In this case, we are not involved.

Im not sure if the FIA has involved their own FIA drivers commission.

Thats something I dont know about.

Lets hope that we dont have many fines being collected.

Due to the ambiguity of what constitutes moral injury, there will be an element of uncertainty heading into round 1 in Australia.

There drivers will undoubtedly have important opinions on drivers on this topic which could see this story evolve.

Whether these stricter guidelines are ever enforced could also impact potential backlash from viewers.

For now though, drivers and teams will focus on their preparations for the upcoming 2025 season .

This article first appeared on Last Word On Sports and was syndicated with permission..

This article has been shared from the original article on yardbarker, here is the link to the original article.