How the F1 driver expression saga continues to have a Lineker-like problem

“It might sound like a broken record. But that's what I'm to keep on doing. It's a fight that I'm going to keep on having.”

Lewis Hamilton there, speaking at Formula 1’s 2023 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver was discussing the new clampdown on where exactly the championship’s stars – and those across motorsport’s other divisions – can express their personal feelings on much more important, non-racing matters.

A day later, Hamilton revealed a tweaked helmet livery, which he would wear in the race where he finished a frustrated fifth – his new fluorescent yellow update to his most visible competition colour scheme, topped with a rainbow flag. Once again, Hamilton was expressing his solidarity with the global LGBTQ+ community and doing so in a country where that community’s rights are restricted.

While reading these words 10 days after the Bahrain race dominated by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, you might be wondering why this ground is being covered again. Well, for a start, there’s Hamilton’s point – that the required meaningful change on discrimination won’t happen just by something being said once. Or a catchy slogan dreamt up and used for a few years, then dropped. We just must keep coming back.

But this particular topic also reflects the issues of our highly charged, very polarised current age. And, given events at the United Kingdom’s most famous media organisation this week concerning BBC sports presenter and ex-footballer Gary Lineker, it’s been thrown into fresh light. That development in turn highlights a continuing problem with the new rules restricting racing driver expression in FIA-sanctioned championships.

In the Lineker Twitter saga, his criticism of the UK government's new asylum policy exposed the problem of rules regarding impartiality introduced in 2020 only vaguely applying to BBC staff not working at its news and current affairs divisions – where impartiality is a key part of the mission. The BBC is now set to review these guidelines in a climbdown after initially suspending Lineker and igniting a debate that infuriated all sides.

Rules around helmet liveries - like the one Lewis Hamilton raced with in Bahrain - are ill-defined in the FIA's driver expression clampdown

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

It was a high-profile storm and one that could and should have been prevented. And, despite the clarification issued by the FIA last month regarding the new rules on racing driver expression, there remains the possibility of a row igniting specifically because the rules on helmet liveries are not well defined.

Because, as written, they suggest that any driver wanting to make a display with their liveries must obtain permission to do so. But it is understood that this didn’t happen with Hamilton’s case in Bahrain and everything was fine.

In fact, helmet liveries are not expressly defined in the governing body’s ‘Guidance on the Principle of Neutrality’ regarding the updated Article 12.2.1.n of its International Sporting Code – released on 17 February. That was before the FIA spoke directly with the drivers ahead of the Bahrain race and those talks are understood to have allayed most of the competitors’ concerns expressed across the 2022-23 off-season.

PLUS: The alarm that still sounds from the FIA's driver expression clampdown

The clampdown, which it still should be considered given the possibility for penalties for violating the FIA’s neutrality requirement wasn’t previously codified, actually only impacts a much more limited scope of when drivers can freely express themselves than had been feared. Not that that is still acceptable when considering free speech overall.

While some F1 stakeholders are hoping the furore over driver expression will quieten down, leaving the helmet livery rules as a grey area means a bigger problem is left as a real possibility of becoming reality later

The FIA has no problem with the rainbow flag being shown and it is understood would only get involved in such a display if it were raised by another F1 stakeholder, for example a race promoter. That didn’t happen in Bahrain, but the concern is that it could elsewhere.

F1 is right now getting ready for the third Jeddah GP – part of the attempt by state of Saudi Arabia, a country where LGBTQ+ people are even more severely suppressed than elsewhere in the Middle East, to sportwash its image. In winning the first of these events back in 2021, Hamilton wore a full rainbow livery helmet. Based on that, we can cautiously hope he would be allowed to do so again this weekend if he wishes.

Indeed, F1’s focus right now is of the whole 2023 event going off without a hitch given the Houthi missile attack on an Aramco oil facility near the track during FP1 last year. The championship has outlined increased security measures for the 2023 event, as well as highlighting the informal ceasefire in the Yemen conflict. It clearly wants anyone attending this race to feel safe.

Lewis Hamilton wore a rainbow pride helmet at the first Saudi GP, which in theory should be allowed to happen again in 2023. If not, where does the driver expression debate head next?

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

That it must is, of course, alarming. And it is tied to the realisation that global sport and politics are intrinsically linked – no matter how profusely a regime trying to bury unpalatable practices while showing off a shiny sporting event may claim otherwise.

In codifying what drivers can and cannot do during F1 on-track or equivalent moments, the FIA maintains it is trying to protect them from potentially igniting problems in countries the championship visits. The governing body is adamant it does not dictate F1’s calendar – that responsibility for these problematic situations lies with the F1 organisation given it does the deals.

F1 is known to be frustrated with the various rule sagas that have hit the championship in recent seasons. And there remains potential for another if all sides can’t ensure the helmet livery grey area is better defined.

The same fear would exist should an authoritarian regime come to power in the West (the FIA is keen to highlight its neutrality principle applies for both sides of the political spectrum). But, given it returns to the F1 calendar this year, what about the Qatar question?

From the outset it’s worth remembering that Hamilton’s full 2021 rainbow helmet made its bow in the inaugural Qatar GP and so you could apply the same logic of it hopefully being allowed again as with Saudi Arabia. But Qatar is where the rainbow ‘One Love’ armband aimed at protesting all forms of discrimination was effectively banned, disgracefully, by FIFA on the eve of the football World Cup last November.

If such a step can happen once it can surely happen again. And that’s the real fear in the case of the rainbow helmet livery. That while some F1 stakeholders are hoping the furore over driver expression will quieten down, leaving the helmet livery rules as a grey area means a bigger problem is left as a real possibility of becoming reality later.

It could blow up into a Lineker-like optics storm, or perhaps even put people’s safety at risk. And that’s an uncomfortable position always worth highlighting.

Is F1 at risk from a Gary Lineker/BBC-style fallout over its helmet design grey area?

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images