The Red Bull team principal also expressed his criticism of the ‘gag’ imposed by the FIA on the drivers
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There is now less than a month left before the actual start of the 2023 Formula 1 season, with the highly anticipated first GP of the year taking place on March 5 in Bahrain. Yet it is above all the women who hold the court thorny off-track issues who have been pitting the Circus against the international federation for weeks now. Among the most discussed topics there is certainly the controversial decision of the FIA prevent pilots from expressing their opinions on political or religious issues during race weekends. A rule that to many has seemed done ad hoc to protect against criticism being transferred to ‘complicated’ countries from the point of view of internal politics and respect for human rights, such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain itself.
Not infrequently in recent years the drivers most attentive to non-sporting contexts – Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel above all – had shown closeness to protest movements that contested the decisions of the FIA and F1 to go and race in countries not exactly attentive to compliance with the rights and equality. This ‘censorship’ policy imposed by the FIA however, it seems to have had the opposite effect, leaving drivers unhappy too – like the reigning world champion Max Verstappen – who in the past had never wanted to ‘put their noses’ on issues that weren’t somehow related to the track. His team principal at Red Bull also expressed his opinion on Verstappen’s line, Christian Horner.
The English manager has warned the federation of the danger of to make pilots small “robot” without any kind of expression. A risk that would also harm the very marketability of the ‘F1 product’. “Sport should never be used as a political tool – acknowledged Horner on the sidelines of the Red Bull 2023 season presentation event – sport is meant to entertain and to create an element of escapism. But certainly we at Red Bull have never forced our drivers not to have freedom of speech, nor the freedom to have their own opinions and the possibility of expressing them, because they have a voice. You have to find a balance. In the world we live in today everyone has a voice and this should not be suppressed. Of course, everything must be done responsibly. But we don’t want to see a mass of robots go running without any opinion“.
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