F1 ruling body HIT OUT at penalty criticism

The FIA have issued an official statement, after criticisms of their decisions from major Formula 1 drivers.

The 2024 season saw a series of controversial punishments handed out by the sport's governing body, particularly in the title fight between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.

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Norris was handed a five-second time penalty at the United States Grand Prix for overtaking Verstappen off-track, before Verstappen was handed two 10-second time penalties for his aggressive driving at the Mexican GP, driving tactics that Norris described as 'dangerous'.

Furthermore, the chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association - Mercedes star George Russell - recently asked the FIA for transparency on where driver fines go for smaller infringements, such as speeding in the pitlane or blocking a competitor during a practice session.

FIA defiant over punishment system

As part of a rather scathing assessment of the sport's governing body, Russell told media at the Las Vegas GP: "I think ultimately for us when we were hearing from the FIA a couple of years ago when it came to the presidential elections, they were talking about transparency, talking about where the money’s going to be reinvested into sort of grassroots racing, which we’re all sort of in favour of.

"When it comes to some of these large fines, there’s a number of drivers on the grid who can comfortably afford these fines.

"But if we know where that’s being sort of reinvested and if it’s going into grassroots or into some training programmes, then we get it."

The FIA - who also govern other motorsport series including Formula E, the World Endurance Championship and the World Rally Championship (WRC) - have staunchly defended their fines system, confirming that the money does not go anywhere else other than grassroots motorsport and safety avenues.

Now, in an official statement, Nikolas Tombazis, head of single-seater racing at the FIA, has once again defended F1 punishments, reassuring fans of the FIA's official role in motorsport.

"The FIA is not a profit-making organisation," Tombazis told Autosport.

"We don't have shareholders who are looking at some numbers in the stock exchange and hoping for share price to go up or get more dividends or anything like that. So all the money is spent on what is considered to be beneficial aspects, whether it is for safety, for grassroots in motorsport, or sometimes other projects which are to do with road safety.

"I think this question is sometimes slightly influenced by the emotions of the moment, of whatever fine is being discussed and so on. I realise that anyone who is paying a fine is always slightly annoyed about it and may feel somewhat aggrieved, but for sure there are so many different levels of projects that I think you can never come to the conclusion that this money is somehow spent for Christmas parties and so on.

"The amount of money spent in grassroots vastly exceeds the fines accumulated, which I think indicates that anything that goes in there will have a positive impact," Tombazis continued. "What I can say with absolute certainty is that fines of drivers in one sport don't subsidise another sport or another category or something like that."

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