Russell frustrated by FIA silence to GPDA letter

George Russell shocked by silence from F1’s governing body since it received an open letter from the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association

George Russell has spoken about his frustration with the FIA for not responding to the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association and said many drivers are “fed up with the whole situation”.

The GPDA released a statement targeting the FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem following the Brazilian Grand Prix, which urged the FIA to treat its members “like adults” and for Ben Sulayem to “consider his own tone and language when talking to our member drivers, or indeed about them”.

They also questioned the use of monetary fines and asked for transparency about where the money from the fines is spent.

The GPDA’s statement followed the controversy focused on Max Verstappen being given community service for swearing in the Singapore GP Thursday press conference.

Charles Leclerc was also fined €10,000 (approximately £8,334) for swearing in Mexico's post-race press conference, half of which was suspended for 12 months.

Russell also said that F1 drivers were not briefed about the sudden departure of race steward Niels Wittich.

The German has been replaced by Rui Marques for the final three races of the season, with no further details made available.

Speaking ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Russell said: “I’m not too sure if we feel we are being listened to and some of the changes we are requesting are implemented.

“There are a number of drivers who feel fed up with the whole situation and only it seems to be going, to a degree, in the wrong direction.”

Russell, a director of the GPDA, says the letter was a way of showing Ben Sulayem just how strongly the drivers felt on the matter.

“Getting things to change or promises upheld seems slightly more challenging,” he said. “Maybe the FIA or the president did not recognise how seriously we all felt.

“Over the course of 20 races this year and even last year we spoke about a number of topics, all the drivers, we feel pretty similar, we know what we want from the sport and the directions it has been heading and we feel we want a small U-turn on a number of topics and we want to work together with the FIA on this.

“We felt that has not been happening at all from the president.”

Russell also suggested that by not responding to questions about how the money from fines was being used it failed to meet promises made during Ben Sulayem’s election campaign in 2021.

“For us when we were hearing from the FIA a couple of years ago, when they had the presidential elections, they were all about transparency,” he said.

“About where the money was going to be reinvested in terms of grassroots racing, which we are all in favour. We just want the transparency, an understanding of what was promised from the beginning.”