Political statements in F2: 'They don't want to hurt their careers'

In Formula 1, the FIA decided that drivers must refrain from making political and religious statements at certain times fell badly. The tightened rules also apply to other racing series, such as Formula 2 and Formula 3. Problems are less expected there: "They (the drivers) need to be a bit more careful."

Santino Ferrucci is no longer racing in Formula 2. On track, the American hardly impressed, especially his off-race behaviour is still fresh in the minds of many. Once, for instance, he deliberately crashed into his teammate off the track during the exit lap, which earned him a four-race suspension. Ferrucci also once had a plan to put Donald Trump campaign stickers on his race car. The F2 organisers banned him from doing so.

Hardly an issue

Bruno Michel, the CEO of F2 and F3, has obviously also heard that the tightened regulations around political and religious statements have led to discussion in Formula 1. Finally, it has been a regular occurrence for drivers to express their opinions explicitly. Except for Ferrucci in the past then, this is hardly ever the case in the junior classes. According to Michel, this is unlikely to change.

"We are not at the same kind of level because our drivers are younger", the CEO said, speaking to GPblog and others. "They don’t have the same visibility as F1 drivers. And they are on the way up. That’s why they always need to be a bit more careful about what they say because they don’t want to do anything that would be detrimental to their career."

According to Michel, the subject (sensitive in F1) has not (yet) been discussed in F2 and F3. "And we will as soon as they want. My office is always open during the race weekends to discuss that. At the moment, I would say it’s not really an issue that we are concentrating on for F2 and F3 for the reasons I told you. A little bit too early in terms of visibility for our drivers to make statements. We will absolutely monitor that and discuss it with Stefano (Domenicali)."