The FIA has been through a turbulent time lately, losing F1 race director Niels Wittich ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, followed by F2’s intended race director Janette Tan and long-serving steward Tim Mayer.
But it was keen to stress its latest meeting in Qatar between its representatives and drivers helped to address the concerns many of them raised after the United States Grand Prix.
“The meeting was the most productive one we’ve [ever] attended,” said the chairman of the FIA stewards Garry Connelly in a statement issued by the sport’s governing body.Drivers raised concerns the FIA’s Driving Standard Guidelines had led to some debateable penalty calls at the Circuit of the Americas. Several incidents from the race were analysed during the course of the meeting.
“The Driving Standard Guidelines are a living document, so every year, as the F1 stewards we try to meet with the drivers, sporting directors and FIA representatives, to see if we need to tweak the guidelines to use the experience of the last 12 months and see what improvements we can make to ensure consistency,” says Connelly. “The goal of the guidelines is consistency.”
Following the Austin race last month, several drivers questioned penalties issued to Oscar Piastri and George Russell who overtook drivers on the inside of turn 12 as their rivals left the track. There was also controversy over the five-second time penalty issued to Lando Norris for passing Max Verstappen off-track on the outside of turn 12, having drawn ahead of the Red Bull approaching the corner, then been forced off the track by the Red Bull, who also left the circuit.
The FIA’s statement gave no indication how the guidelines might be changed or how else they might respond to the drivers’ complaints. However the FIA safety director Tim Malyon acknowledged a point drivers have made for years, that replacing asphalt run-offs with gravel traps or strips encourages better compliance with the racing rules. This lesson has already been applied at other tracks this year, though not the Austin circuit.
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“We introduced the gravel traps, starting in Austria, and obviously… this weekend being perhaps the most obvious with gravel traps added in a number of places,” said Malyon. “We continue to work with circuits on all topics, but it was very useful in yesterday’s meeting to get the insight of the drivers and see how they prioritise the gravel track concept, not only for track limits, but also for managing some of the situations that have arisen with overtaking during the course of the last four or five races.”
“The main problem is that when you have so much Tarmac on the outside, even if you lock up a little bit, you just run a little bit wide,” he told the BBC. “But on old-school tracks, you normally never really have these kind of issues because it just doesn’t happen because people are a little bit more tentative on the brakes. Also, the guy that is trying to overtake knows that if he makes a mistake and locks up, he’s in the gravel and his race is done.”
“If you go to Suzuka or even Red Bull Ring in turn four – the downhill right-hander – where sometimes you’re fighting as well, it’s very rare that there is any like question mark move that is being done there because if you make a mistake or you brake too late, you go off in the gravel and you’re penalised anyway.
“I think we have to try and go back to these kind of things that when a driver goes off the track, it’s a harsh penalty with just natural track limits.”
However Verstappen also made it clear he won’t accept being overtaken on the outside under any circumstances. “Me personally, I don’t race like that,” he said. “When I race with someone, you will not be able to overtake me on the outside. Because that’s how I grew up racing.”
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Asked whether he would never allow another driver room on the outside he said: “That’s just normally the case, yeah.”
Verstappen says he is not the only driver on the grid who approaches racing this way. “Every driver is a little bit different. I remember from go-karting as well with some you just knew that if you went around the outside, you could hang it around the outside and with some others you couldn’t because they would push you off.”
“But I’ve raced against other people in go karting that would give me space,” he added. “It’s just a driver-related thing that some drivers are just a bit more passive in racing.
“That’s just how they are and some I know that even in F1, I can’t hang it around the outside because they will push me off.”
Some drivers wanted the FIA to impose an immediate change in the racing rules after Austin, but no revision is expected until next season. Verstappen believes that whatever the outcome is, the complaints over the racing rules will not stop.
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“I don’t think I would have been the person to complain so hard because I would just think to myself ‘okay, if that’s the rules, that’s how we do it’ instead of screaming that we need to change the rules,” he said.
“Because the problem is if you make less rules and then something happens, then they will start screaming for more rules. Now we have the rules, maybe [they’re] not perfect, but it will never be perfect because if we get to a certain rule set there will be another incident where someone is not happy about it and then they start screaming that the rules are not correct again.”
The newly-crowned world champion says pushing the rules to the limit will remain part of his approach. “I drive to what I think is possible and what is allowed in the rules,” said Verstappen. “And if the rules are written like that, I will use the rules.”
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2024 Qatar Grand Prix
- Divorce is in the air. What’s next for Red Bull, RB, Perez – and his replacement?
- “Lando did not lift”: How Verstappen and Red Bull lobbied for Norris’s penalty
- F1 switched to back-up Safety Car after lights failure during Qatar Grand Prix
- FIA explains why race director did not neutralise race after yellow flag for debris
- Verstappen masters race track and rule book with satisfying Qatar victory
slowmo (@slowmo)
30th November 2024, 12:44
Verstappen is not the problem, he’s a symptom of a problem whereby the FIA have allowed the drivers to build rules full of holes that allow them to use the rules meant to promote fair racing to do the opposite. It’s impossible to produce rules that will work for every situation, it’s just not feasible there has to be some interpretation by stewards and Whiting used to do that by leaning heavily on past precedent rather than use the overtaking guidelines as a shield. On balance, the way whiting used to do it I preferred as under the new systems, we see too much dirty racing where a punishment is not given.
The hypocrisy of F1 drivers is easy to see when literally no driver had a problem with the way Verstappen deliberately crashed into Hamilton for much of 2021 but now they’re on the receiving end it’s suddenly become a problem for them. Drivers will flip flop over right or wrong depending on which end of the argument they sit constantly.
I don’t mind drivers being given guidelines but lets put some human judgement back into the equation for stewarding. The let them race sentiment or drive to consistent stewarding has failed.
MichaelN
30th November 2024, 12:57
This obsession with precedence is an English aberration, based on their common law justice system, that has no place in the sport. The rules about what isn’t allowed are clearly defined in the Code, so when the race director flags an incident, or the stewards themselves take note of one, it’s up to them to weigh the circumstances and give out one of the various penalties in their toolbox.
This talk about precedence hampers the stewards by limiting them to only a fraction of the available penalties. Instead, the rules allow them to give a wide variety of penalties, unhindered by history. For example, a first time offense might be given a time penalty, whereas a serial rule ignorer like Verstappen can justifiably be handed a drive-through for similar antics.
Ultimately, the FIA is to blame for appointing stewards who fail to use the powers the rules afford them.
Robbie1
30th November 2024, 13:55
“ a serial rule ignorer like Verstappen”
But he doesn’t ignore the rules, he exploits them.
Drivers like Lando, who deliberately push drivers on the grass (Spain 2024), are the ones ignoring the rules.
And even worse, he actually laughed about it.
SteveP
30th November 2024, 15:53
The latter is the problem – the rules are not clearly defined. Anyone vaguely clued-up on standard contract wording would give you a list of badly worded sentences and paragraphs throughout.
In fact anyone with a copy of the text and a text editor can search for the word “may” and give a long list of examples.
In the absence of clarity, the stewards fall back on the tried and trusted “what did we do last time we had something similar?” to guide their judgement.
Robbie1
30th November 2024, 13:51
Can’t remember Max crashing into Lewis pre Silverstone 21.
And Lewis his dirty driving at Silverstone 21 basically gives every driver carte blanche to do as they please.
The FIA should have listened to Lauda and Emerson in 2011 that Lewis would kill someone if they didn’t intervene.
14-6-2011
“Niki Lauda has hit out at Lewis Hamilton’s on-track aggression in F1 of late, arguing that the McLaren-Mercedes star is ‘completely mad’ and that his driving style ‘will result in someone getting killed’.”
There you go.
N
30th November 2024, 14:38
“Can’t remember Max crashing into Lewis pre Silverstone 21.”
Because Hamilton kept avoiding it.
If you’re not sure of when, check Imola, Spain, and, 2 corners before they actually crashed in Silverstone.
SteveP
30th November 2024, 16:00
That would be due to LH dodging the MV lunges, to his disadvantage.
I do wonder why MV fanatics so regularly bring up an incident that, wouldn’t have happened if Max had judged the relative speeds fractionally better.
This would be the same Lauda that went to great effort to recruit Hamilton to drive for the Mercedes team?
Yeah, I guess so. Must have changed his mind.
Kribana (@krichelle)
30th November 2024, 13:18
Problem relies in the FIA not issuing the proper penalties for the violation of the rules.
Robbie1
30th November 2024, 13:52
Yes, Lauda was aware of that:
“ Niki Lauda has hit out at Lewis Hamilton’s on-track aggression in F1 of late, arguing that the McLaren-Mercedes star is ‘completely mad’ and that his driving style ‘will result in someone getting killed’”
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage-(Unhinged) (@davedai)
30th November 2024, 13:55
The decision documents end with this ,(plus appeal right)
Martin Elliott
30th November 2024, 14:06
The biggest problem is the decades old culture of problem solving and decision making by the FIA.
All they do is identify an immediate problem and list possible solutions. They rarely identify other benefits or even the drawbacks of a decision.
Even less common is to fully analyse the issues and bare down the the basic/root cause of a problem. Then to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment with a documented framework of decision making regarding benefits and drawbacks.
We have asphalt run-off mainly of concerns of diginin and roll overs. Now on reanalysis that hazard/risk is being dismissed.
Over 50 years hazardous industries have developed a safety culture base on Objective rather than Prescriptive management. FIA has even (pretended) to adopt such ISO Management Standards, but with the basic culture missing !
However the culling of FIA Officials at the moment does not bode well
Jonathan Parkin
30th November 2024, 14:26
The problem is, Verstappen says he won’t stop getting criticised, but ultimately he didn’t need to force his competitors off the track, or do the yield or we’ll crash manoeuvre.
Robbie1
30th November 2024, 14:30
Yes he does, it’s the standard set by the FIA when they refused to ban Lewis in 2011, or even after the dirtiest move in F1 history he pulled at Silverstone 21.
Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
30th November 2024, 14:48
What a load of nonsense is this
First of all, bad and/or driving is nothing new. Senna’s lunge into prost or some of Schumacher’s uglier moments precede Hamilton and Verstappen’s careers quite a bit. Then there are the blockers of the 80s and 90s if you want another example of ugly driving
Secondly, Silverstone was neither the ‘dirtiest move ever’ nor did it necessitate Verstappen’s moves in Monza or Brazil. Giving the idea of individual responsibilty the shaft because someone else wronged you some time ago is not how a sport should work. Even NASCAR has taken steps against that kind of behaviour.
Third. What happened in 2011 does not affect Verstappen, nor do I recall Massa trying to decapitate Hamilton. That was more Grosjeans or maldonado’s territory back then and both racked up plenty of penalties at the time
PlosslF1 (@f1-ploss)
30th November 2024, 15:21
New to F1 Eh…
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
1st December 2024, 3:02
Of course, of course. A spate of incidents in 2011 should determine our views on what sort of driver LH is. And not any of the subsequent 13 years.
BenHur
30th November 2024, 14:43
That one was egregious and criminal, the worst in four decades. But the desultorily worshipped Ayrton Senna used to do much worse. Almost every race. He was out to get someone killed.
BenHur
30th November 2024, 14:44
misplaced was a response to Robbie1