Max Verstappen will serve his community service punishment for swearing in an FIA press conference in Rwanda, where Formula 1’s governing body is staging its end-of-season awards this coming week.
Verstappen will be officially crowned 2024’s world champion on Friday night at the FIA’s annual awards ceremony, which this year is being staged in Africa for the first time at an event in the Rwandan capital of Kigali – and will undertake some work with junior racing drivers as part of his visit.
The Red Bull driver was handed F1’s equivalent of community service at September’s Singapore Grand Prix after he used an expletive in the Thursday press conference to describe his Red Bull car’s performance at the previous event.
Stewards at the event said that while Verstappen’s language was considered to be “coarse, rude” and “may cause offense”, it was noted that his words were not directed at any individual or group.
However, the ruling added that “as this topic has been raised before and is well known by the competitors”, Verstappen was being handed “a greater penalty” than previously meted out in other similar circumstances and that the Dutchman would be “obliged to accomplish some work of public interest”.
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An FIA statement said: “The FIA has announced the details of Max Verstappen’s ‘work of public interest’ duty linked to the Stewards’ penalty for the use of unacceptable language during the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix drivers’ press conference.
“Verstappen will travel to the FIA Awards Ceremony which takes place as part of the General Assemblies next week in Kigali, Rwanda to collect his fourth consecutive FIA Formula One World Championship trophy.
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“The activity will involve an FIA Affordable Cross Car which was built locally in Rwanda by the RAC from blueprints provided by the FIA.
“Design blueprints for the Level 2 category Affordable Cross Car project have been delivered to the global network of 147 National Sporting Authorities (ASNs).”
The punishment came after FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem had said in an interview, which was published earlier on the same day, that he wanted to see less driver swearing broadcast on F1’s global TV feed, and that the sport’s stars had a responsibility to mind their language too.
In protest against his sanction, Verstappen limited his answers to questions in his two subsequent appearances in FIA press conferences in Singapore and instead staged his own media sessions with journalists where he gave lengthier answers afterwards.
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