Most Formula 1 drivers wanted swift changes to the rules of racing following a series of widely-debated stewarding calls in the United States Grand Prix, says George Russell
The incident between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris in the race was a particular cause for concern. Several drivers questioned whether Norris alone should have been penalised for passing Verstappen outside the track limits after the Red Bull driver also failed to navigate the corner and forced Norris wide.Russell, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, said that prompted discussions between them and the race director ahead of last weekend’s race in Mexico. At the subsequent race the championship contenders clashed again and Verstappen received two penalties for incidents with Norris, though the specifics of both cases were different to those a week earlier.
The drivers impressed upon the FIA the need for swift changes, said Russell. “We had the discussion last week in Mexico and the majority were aligned [on] what needs to change,” he told the official F1 channel.
“Understandably, I think, the FIA wanted a bit of consistency. But again, the majority felt that if something is incorrect, we should make a change and we should implement it straight away.
“If you look in Mexico, penalties were awarded, I think they were the correct penalties. Maybe they should have been awarded in Austin as well. But I think everyone is pretty aligned on where the limit is.”
While Verstappen said last week he would not handle either situation any differently, Russell doesn’t believe he has any grounds to complain about the penalties he received in Mexico.
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“He is a three time world champion, he knows what he’s doing, there’s no doubt about it. And he’s a hard racer, he’s always been aggressive, and that’s I think that’s great.
“If you go beyond the limit, you get penalised. If you’re on the limit, you pull off something great. And last week he went beyond, he got penalised. Times before, he’s been on the limit and hasn’t.
“So he knows what he’s doing and I think the penalties last week were correct and he can’t argue with that.”
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2024 Mexican Grand Prix
- McLaren have no regrets over pitting Norris shortly before red flag came out
- Leclerc fined, avoids same penalty as Verstappen after apologising for swearing
- Leclerc not in the clear over swearing as Verstappen claims he went unpunished
- Majority of drivers wanted racing rules to change “straight away” – Russell
- Verstappen was “over the limit” with Norris but others would do same – Leclerc
MacLeod (@macleod)
1st November 2024, 8:34
changing rules during a season is a no …
AlanD
1st November 2024, 14:44
Yes, but if I am reading this correctly, these are not rules, they are stewarding guidelines which can be changed at any time, and in fact change from race to race anyway, e.g. guideance on which corners will have track limits enforced, etc.
NoelyNoel (@noelynoel)
1st November 2024, 16:53
Since the 2024 F1 season started, the 2024 Sporting Regulations have been revised four times. the Technical Regulations three times and the Financial Regulations twice.
Doh
1st November 2024, 19:48
It’s fine if the rules in question is daft. A rule which also shows incompetence by the FIA.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
1st November 2024, 8:54
if you push a guy off the track, by dive bombing people, you need to do a drive through. If you deliberately not break for a corner, and almost run someone in to a wall, you should be black flagged.
Mayrton
1st November 2024, 11:00
Let alone if you actually do run someone into a wall. Oh wait..
Johnny
1st November 2024, 14:26
Max “You Shall Not Pass” Verstappen could have backed off. Oh wait.
Mayrton
1st November 2024, 17:53
Yeah, that’s what you do when you are ahead, or at least that is what Lewis’ fan base expects.. make way for the king!
BenHur
1st November 2024, 18:54
Johannes Franciscus Verstappen, a competent F1 driver and a 24 h of Le Mans champion in the LMP2 category, should have been stewarding that one, that would have been a lark.
oweng (@oweng)
1st November 2024, 10:25
“But I think everyone is pretty aligned on where the limit is.”
That’s an interesting comment, and a logical one. Even from a viewer’s perspective, you can generally tell the difference between hard racing, genuine mistakes/misjudgements and deliberate foul play. So the drivers must be acutely aware of those things given they’ve spent their lives immersed in it! The question is and probably always has been, how do you deal with someone who is aware of those limits but doesn’t care so will push beyond them no matter what the outcome is. Fairness be damned – winning is everything. Or actually, a bit worse than that, your opponent not winning is everything.
How does a group of drivers who operate 100% in the hard racing and genuine mistakes/misjudgements categories deal with someone who operates in the deliberate foul play category? That’s where the rules come in. And that’s where having a group of stewards who are ex drivers and who are all on the same page with what is and isn’t acceptable is crucial.
Mayrton
1st November 2024, 11:17
I surely hope they also address the enforcement. Having stewards share nationality with contestants is at the very least questionable and shady. Easy to address and fixed as well by the way.
oweng (@oweng)
1st November 2024, 14:25
How would you avoid that? All stewards to be picked from countries who don’t have an F1 driver? Any steward where a driver from the same country is involved is frozen out of a decision?
If there is consensus and understanding on what is and isn’t acceptable. And this is communicated clearly to everyone involved and watching then there should be less room for accusations of country bias.
Mayrton
1st November 2024, 17:58
Avoid any Steward that has a nationality that matches any driver. In football they do the same. 195 nations and 20 drivers of which multiple from the same country. Easy fix IF your objective is to be neutral.
SteveP
1st November 2024, 14:36
Well, as Russell said: “But I think everyone is pretty aligned on where the limit is” so it looks like the stewards are also aligned with what 19 of 20 drivers feel should happen.
Or do the driver opinions not count because they come from a country where there is a driver competing in F1?
Mayrton
1st November 2024, 18:03
I am not talking about setting of the rules, but about enforcement. This forum has year in year out on almost every race comments on the inconsistency of the enforcement. So next to having a close look at the book, there is another issue to be addressed; consistency of enforcement. So far, it isn’t working. And my personal interpretation of the cause is favouritism (in any form).
AlanD
1st November 2024, 14:42
Mayrton: “Having stewards share nationality with contestants is at the very least questionable and shady”
In some world cup tournaments in the past, they tried to address that nationality bias. In the initial rounds they had a referee from each represented nation and obviously no-one refereed their own country. Then, if, say, Germany qualified for the second round, at that point they sent home the German referee. What this meant was that as it was mostly the experienced teams from countries with top leagues that qualified, they mostly sent home the best qualified referees and were left with referees with little experience of handling big matches.
In motorsport, you have much smaller pool of experienced referees to call upon, and I would argue that F1 is much less nationalistic than many people like to paint it. A lot of teams are based in the UK, and certainly in the past drivers a lot drivers used to live here too, people who are qualified to be a race steward probably have had contacts with lots of drivers and teams, and most people don’t walk around looking at people’s nationalities. Yes, there is a bunch of people who wave the Union Jack at Silverstone, but there’s also a lot who wave a Ferrari flag, people who have been an Alonso fan throughout his career, and so on. I think the most jingositic people in motorsport are the commentators and journalists, but even there, they seem to be biased more to teams or particular drivers than nationalities.
Mayrton
1st November 2024, 17:56
195 nations in the world. 20 drivers (with even some nationality overlap/doubles).
Inspector Eisenhorn
1st November 2024, 18:29
There are thousands of people qualified to steward an F1 race. You needn’t have been an F1 driver to know how to judge incidents. Also, there are no “professional referees” in F1, which makes this take even less applicable.