Parc Ferme: F1 ruling weaknesses

They looked just like the dummy tyre ornaments from Pirelli’s sponsor suite because… maybe someone had mislaid the shiny ones?

The other thing that seemed to be lost was a belief in the Formula 1 sporting judiciary. It appears it was Zak Brown’s job this weekend to question the validity of Red Bull’s floor bib; his concern centered around the team's ability to adjust it under Parc Ferme conditions.

Parc Ferme finds this surprising since the more significant concern should be: Does it lower as air pressure decreases? The silence on that point is deafening…

The FIA wasn’t just having to defend their technical inspection proficiency either. The furore over the implied erratic application of penalties also returned to the list of F1 team and fan complaints.

Johnny Herbert’s suggestion that a payment of $300 a day was insufficient remuneration, for the work had more profound implications. I think he seemed to be hinting that such a paltry sum does not attract the type of professionally qualified people required for a top-tier event. Hmm…

Despite protestations to the contrary, the role requires significant subjective decision-making. The Stewards blame the regulations, but that is not the issue for the F1 Teams and Drivers.

They are indifferent to whether rules are well or poorly interpreted. What they want is consistency!

Herbert also suggested that using different Stewards makes consistent decision-making impossible. He’s right.

When we look back in time to the days of Charlie Whiting, these kind of problems did not arise. The reason for this is that Charlie, as Race Director, told the Stewards what he was going to do, and they said, “Yes, Charlie, you’re right”.

One man, one decision, boom, job done.

This arrangement worked well until Michael Masi blew it up. Charlie's unfortunate sudden passing left a bigger hole than most expected.

Masi neither had the gravitas nor the experience to carry off the function. This culminated in the calamitous decisions he made at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Consequently, the Race Director now hands off penalty decisions to part-timers, with variable race experience (rental kart or sim racing is not a thing here).

The FIA has made strides in trying to fix things through various training programs which help. However, while education is laudable, the inescapable fact is that experience takes time.

Unfortunately, this does not address the immediate and fundamental problem: Consistency.

A return to the one-man decision-making approach is not a viable option. There would be accusations of them being in someone’s “pocket.”

Charlie was never accused of this, as most presumed that if he was in anyone’s pocket, it was Bernie’s. This leaves us with the choice of a permanent set of Stewards who attend every meeting. They may not always be right, but they will never be wrong. A situation all parties should be happy with.