Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

Media to blame for boring drivers, not teams

Lotus deputy team principal Federico Gastaldi says the media are to blame for drivers giving boring quotes, not F1 teams.

Emerson Fittipaldi recently called for drivers to be more outspoken with their views and even openly criticise their teams or other drivers when required. However, when asked for his opinion on Fittipaldi's comments, Gastaldi says Lotus does not restrict its drivers from saying what they think, but blames media reporting for forcing them to be careful with their words.

"Now if you say anything even slightly out of the normal it’s repeated, misreported, analysed and regurgitated across all forms of media and I think many drivers have taken a wise approach to this; the less controversial you say, the less time you have to spend answering questions about it!" Gastaldi said.

"This is part of the reason why drivers have evolved into sounding like politicians when asked many questions. They want to drive, not spend hours discussing their opinions on whether Kim Kardashian should appear on the front of Rolling Stone magazine."

Gastaldi's comments come after Lotus CEO Matthew Carter blamed the media for negativity surrounding F1, saying critical comments from Bernie Ecclestone are a response to what is reported in the press.

F1i view

We should probably stay quiet on this one...

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.