FORMULA ONE drivers have asked the FIA to treat them like adults amid the sport’s swearing row and urged president Mohammed Ben Sulayem to consider his own “language.”

Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc have both been punished in recent weeks, with the Dutchman asked to “accomplish some work of public interest” after describing his car as “f*****” during a news conference at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Ben Sulayem said in an interview with Autosport ahead of that race that the grid’s stars had a responsibility to stop swearing on the radio and that they should not act like rappers.

Lewis Hamilton, who urged Verstappen to ignore the sanction, said he believed those comments carried a “racial element” as the row escalated.

“There is a difference between swearing intended to insult others and more casual swearing, such as you might use to describe bad weather, or indeed an inanimate object such as an F1 car, or a driving situation,” an open letter from the Grand Prix Drivers Association on behalf of the drivers read.

“We urge the FIA president to consider his own tone and language when talking to our member drivers, or indeed about them, whether in a public forum or otherwise.”