Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok believes that the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association letter sent to the FIA earlier this week did not tackle the ‘most serious issue’ facing the sport – the racing guidelines that have caused so much controversy of late.

On Thursday after the Brazilian Grand Prix, a post from the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association Instagram account – recently formed and followed by all 20 stars on the current grid – posted a statement, directed at the FIA and Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

In the statement, the drivers referred to the swearing drama that landed Max Verstappen community service in Singapore and the FIA’s battle with Lewis Hamilton over jewellery in 2023.

“With regards to swearing, 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 a Formula One car” the statement read.

“We urge the FIA president to also consider his own tone and language when talking to our member drivers, or indeed about them, whether in a public forum or otherwise. Further, our members are adults, they do not need to be given instructions via the media, about matters as trivial as the wearing of jewellery and underpants.”

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Chandhok, however, was unimpressed with the statement. He told GPblog: “The statement of solidarity was very strong. But in my view, there are more important things in Formula One. This thing about the cursing and the jewellery and underpants and all that…I’m not sure if that is really the most serious issue for drivers in F1?”

He went on to add: “I think the most serious issue should be about the guidelines for racing, track limits, creating tracks with natural deterrents like gravel in key places and creating clear and fair rules for everybody to go racing that everyone understands.

“Those are much more important issues. So honestly, I really didn’t pay much attention to this whole thing about the swearing and the underpants and the jewellery. These are not the biggest issues in our sport at the moment.”

The racing regulations were a hot topic of conversation after the first two legs of the recent triple-header. Verstappen picked up two 10-second time penalties in Mexico City, and his driving standards were also questioned after a fierce battle with Lando Norris at the United States Grand Prix.