Podium Profanity

[Monty]

I definitely do not condone swearing but surely this was always a risk of interviewing non-naturally English speaking drivers, high on adrenaline, live and immediately after the race.

Kimi's English vocabulary has more profainities than standard words and Vettel is just a !#*@ing idiot.

The drivers are professionals and should know better but I hope draconian penalties are not imposed because the likes of Kimi will just refuse to do interviews.

[Scott]

In Vettel's case, I think it was an accident. I think that Vettel worked harder in that race than I've ever seen from him. He came from way back in the pack, twice, made it to the podium and saved his points lead. He was, no doubt, exhausted and excited. And, as DC said, English is not Seb's first language.

Kimi, on the other hand, has a history of this. Remember the day that Schumi retired the first time, at Interlagos?

Ok, first time I defended them, now I have to say Vettel has made it through plenty of other interviews without dropping the F-Bomb.  He could well have been testing the water to see what he can get away with as he grabs hold of his 3rd WDC.  Like Monty said, he's just an idiot.  Kimi is more the one I would excuse, first of all because he may not have had the english vocabulary to come up with another noun for $hit (what should he have said, heck?  hard time? trouble?), but Vettel's was after all just an adjective, and he could have just left it out if he couldn't have thought of a nicer one.

[Scott]

Another way to stop it is if the broadcasters simply switch to a 7-10 second delay as soon as the race ends, so all the interviews can be edited by a beep button.  Probably help if they are interviewing idiots like Lauda who regularly swears on the RTL broadcast, and he (was) an employee.

[vintly]

Big deal, they swore on TV. Of course they shouldn't, but this is hardly a real story. Does anyone really think that this adversely affected anyone watching, really?? It'll only become an issue if it becomes the norm - I'm amazed how worked up people get, actually bothering to call in and complain. It's not as if anything was said in anger.

[Ian]

There is such a thing as the watershed vintly, I don't expect to hear the F word on BBC at that time on a Sunday.

[vintly]

There is such a thing as the watershed vintly, I don't expect to hear the F word on BBC at that time on a Sunday.

Fair enough, I just think that there's an awful lot worse said without swear words by politicians, adverts, footballers, etc etc. One profanity and you're a monster, but a ton of carefully worded lies and you're just 'working'.

Rant over!

[John S]

There is such a thing as the watershed vintly, I don't expect to hear the F word on BBC at that time on a Sunday.

Vintly heard it on Sky Ian, - makes all the difference.      


 

[Ian]

Don't get me started on politicians or footballers vintly, they are worse than estate agents.

[David]

There is such a thing as the watershed vintly, I don't expect to hear the F word on BBC at that time on a Sunday.

Fair enough, I just think that there's an awful lot worse said without swear words by politicians, adverts, footballers, etc etc. One profanity and you're a monster, but a ton of carefully worded lies and you're just 'working'.

Rant over!

  I do love a good rant!

[rmassart]

There is such a thing as the watershed vintly, I don't expect to hear the F word on BBC at that time on a Sunday.

Fair enough, I just think that there's an awful lot worse said without swear words by politicians, adverts, footballers, etc etc. One profanity and you're a monster, but a ton of carefully worded lies and you're just 'working'.

Rant over!

I have to agree with vintly and also the fact that these drivers are foreign.  In many countries you routinenly hear these words on TV before 8pm or whatever the watershed is. Where I live I am far less concerned about the language my children might hear on TV, than the blood, gore and sex that seems to appear even on normal family channels in the afternoon.

[Willy]

I quite dislike the interview process happening on the podium. I realize it lets the attending fans see and hear what is said but, as Jeri mentioned, it does not allow the drivers enough time to come down from the rush they have just been maintaining for the last two hours.

If the drivers had some time to come back down to earth, so to speak, they may be able to formulate better sentence structure and not flippantly use inappropriate language during the interview.

Kimi, being a man of few words as he is, would not be the best driver to ask to "say a few more words".
And his reaction was a combination of adrenaline and amusement.

[Irisado]

I'm pleased that the FIA is taking a line on this, because I think that it's just bad manners, and the drivers ought to be able to choose their words more carefully.  I'm not overly offended, but I don't think that it is a particularly good advert for the sport, especially if children are watching.

As for the language argument, I also speak Spanish and Italian, and I know which words are swear words, and not to be used in a public setting.  The excuse they are not native speakers doesn't cut any ice with me.

[Alianora La Canta]

The FIA line on this has been consistent since at least 2006 - swearing is to be avoided to the maximum extent possible on live TV, due to the offence and possible resulting switched-off/over TVs caused. The difference now is that there is likely to be a formal penalty/censure, as opposed to the tactic back then of quietly explaining the consequences of the action and waiting for the driver to make amends themselves. Maybe they decided that it was pointless to try asking Kimi Raikkonen to apologise for anything he says because he's not the type to think swearing should be a problem. After all, his definition of "bad language" is probably the sort of carefully worded lies - or "politician's polka" as I like to call it - vintly was talking about.

Personally, if I'd encountered that interview as a 7-year-old (and been able to hear it clearly - I listened to it on the day and couldn't hear anyone's reply over the crowd noise), I would probably not have become a F1 fan because the language would have offended me.

"Politicians' polka" was easier because they just sounded like they were confusing themselves and/or they seemed like they were undermining their own arguments. Neither could be considered offensive since most 7-year-olds confuse themselves or undermine their own arguments. The difference, of course, is that the 7-year-olds were/are doing it by accident.

They are not worried, as far as I can tell, about anything for non-live consumption, nor with interviews with TV stations before the race or after the post-race official press conference. Presumably this is because it is easier to opt in or out of those without losing the FIA's formal "core transmission", which is anything between 5 minutes before the formation lap and the end of the post-race conference.

I hate the podium interviews because the moment anything interesting is said, the crowd drowns out the people speaking. It seems particularly pointless given that the post-race press conference is already broadcast to the fans, and features many very similar questions.

[lkjohnson1950]

NASCAR has a similar problem:

[Canada Darrell™]

Seems I'm always late to the party these days..I thought this summed up my own thoughts quite nicely.....