F1 Fanatic

Considering that it looks like the Bahrain Grand Prix is set to go ahead again, I was wondering, are the drivers allowed to refuse the trophy on the podium? Do they have do shake the hands of the podium officials? Do they have to spray the champagne? My point is: presuming that the crown prince or another member of the royal family is hot favorite to hand the trophies out on the podium – are there any rules which punish drivers or teams for making political statements on the podium? This is the kind of thing I’d presume Bernie to have covered but I can’t remember this issue ever coming up in F1.

Well, F1 raced in South Africa during apartheid, and I don’t recall any issues with drivers refusing trophies. Some teams and drivers refused to take part at all, but I don’t think it will happen in F1 today because Bernie will try to withhold royalties and FOTA is all show and no go.

I wasn’t saying they should or should not shake the hands of the Bahrain officials, but I was wondering whether there are any rules in F1 that ‘force’ drivers to accept trophies and show respect to officials on the podium, and if so – what are the punishments?

Making political statements on the podium can have serious consequences. It’s not unlike those athletes who gave the “black power” salute on the podium at the 1968 Mecixo City Olympics. It’s just not done.

Also, they don’t spray champagne in Bahrain because it’s a Muslim nation. They usually spray a champage alternative; one year it was carbonated pomegranate water, which prompted Jenson Button to say “We smell like ladies now” because it’s perfumed.

The trophy is for winning the race, not winning the Bahrain People’s Friend Award or something like that, so I don’t see the point.

You’d think they’d be allowed to, Ned. But the FIA says otherwise: http://www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press_Releases/The_FIA/2002/260602-01.html

if they dont accept the trophies in bahrain, there’s a big chance they’ll never get out of bahrain.

There’s a section on podium procedure in the Sporting Regulations (Appendix 3), but not all the requirements appear to be in there – I think some of them are verbally briefed before each podium, according to circumstances.

As I understand it, the drivers are required to accept the trophy, stand respectfully on their assigned podium step for the anthems and then take their trophies and champagne (while meeting other regulations applying to them for the entire event, such as not mixing F1 with politics). The one thing definitely in the regulations is that they can’t be delayed on their route to the podium. The other regulations concern the behaviour of other people involved.

I have no idea who’s handing out trophies, and the winner is likely to have theirs given out by a politician. The president of the ASN will probably hand out 2nd or 3rd place’s trophy, which in my view is not an improvement. The constructor will get theirs from a sponsor’s representative (i.e. Gulf Air), which is somewhat less controversial.

The big thing they can do that is different to normal is they could decline to spray the champagne, since this isn’t a regulatory requirement. A simple “It didn’t feel right” would work as a defence, but attributing it to the protesters wouldn’t. Willingness to do so may depend on what happens between now and then – if there’s some major disaster (connected to the ongoing politics or not), then there would almost certainly be no champagne. Otherwise, it’s more difficult to tell. I could see Webber and the Force India drivers not spraying champagne if they took the podium. Not so sure on the others.