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Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have not taken kindly to the FIA's flip-flop nature, where the governing body has rolled back some of the anti-swearing rules that had been put in place early in the year. The governing body and some of the actions implemented by the president have raised alarm in different series.
One of the more recent changes brought in by the FIA was around the anti-swearing initiative, where drivers would get penalized for not using the appropriate language in front of the media. Early in the year, a rally driver was even penalized for the same.
Lewis Hamilton's teammate George Russell is the GPDA director, and he has raised his voice against the FIA and how the changes were introduced without any consultation with the drivers or even a dialogue. In what was a clear backtrack from the governing body, the fines have now been halved.
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Hamilton was questioned on his view on the FIA's latest change, to which the driver didn't mince his words. Talking to Motorsport, he said that there are things that need to change, but nothing he says is going to make any difference to it.
“It is ridiculous. I don't really know. Nothing I say is going to make any difference to it. It seems a bit of a mess there at the moment. There are lots of changes that are needed, for sure. But it doesn't really affect me. I don't see what's happened since then.”
George Russell was equally belligerent in his stance as he said that this was a situation where things have been reverted to the way they were earlier, nullifying something that shouldn't have been there in the first place anyway.
"We're talking about a situation where things have been reverted because it was a little bit ludicrous in the first place. Of course we're happy to see that it [has been changed], but it should never have been there in the first place, if that makes sense."
He added:
"So it feels a bit wrong to be thanking [the FIA] for the changes when we shouldn't have been in that place to begin with. We've still had no correspondence with anyone from the senior level at the FIA. So yeah, it's all a bit suspect."
Lewis Hamilton's teammate on the lack of communication between the FIA and the drivers
Lewis Hamilton's teammate George Russell is a director of the GPDA, and one of the more common gripes of the association has been the governing body's inability to have a baseline level of communication with the drivers before making changes. When questioned if that is something that would be a welcome change, Russell said (via Motorsport):
"That's a good question. It seems more challenging than it should be really, but we've all put our views forward. I wouldn't say it's gotten to a point of no return, but you at least want to see willingness from the other party. I think we feel we've put our views forward, and we want to have conversations and dialogue, and there's only so much you can ask."
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell are not the only ones who appear to have issues with the manner in which the FIA conducts itself. There is a long list of drivers who are not very happy with the state of affairs and how things are being run in the governing body.
