Parc Ferme: Stewards Enquiry

While this may make for good Social Media fodder, it leaves F1 looking immature and lacking professionalism. No one’s happy, and something needs to be done.

Some may remember that when Charlie Whiting was in charge, this aspect of F1 was less noisy. As Race director, he made the driver conduct-related decisions, and the Stewards rubber-stamped them. The drivers were happy with this as they were more concerned about consistency than right or wrong.

Since Charlie’s passing, the Stewards have increasingly been given a more central role in this area. Their remit to decide or influence race results has widened by de facto. This is a departure from their original function as an appeals body against penalties; Instead, they now issue them.

The drivers complain about a lack of consistency in applying the regulations, especially regarding the apportioning of blame. Despite the use of data, there is still a lot of “opinion” going on. As we all know, opinions are like heads; everyone has one except, in F1, they’re like eyes and ears; everyone’s got four!

Consistency, then, is difficult to achieve when different Stewards are roped in for different races with differing levels of experience.

Now, the FIA has announced heavy fines and/or points deductions and potentially bans for FIA license holders swearing or criticizing the governing body.

An FIA spokesman proudly trumpeted that the arbiters of all this would be the Stewards, suggesting that they were in some way independent.

They are not, and their judicial reach now extends beyond the Grand Prix weekend.

Unfortunately, the recent grumblings from the FIA’s senior ASN members haven’t helped the optics either. Their main complaint is the stripping back of the Ethics and Audits Committee’s power within the organization.

Combined with the Stewards reporting to and being paid for by the FIA, it’s easy to see how the GPDA may interpret them as potential FIA proxies, proxies that could prosecute any grievances the FIA might have against their members.

This leaves F1’s governing body dangerously open to allegations of interference in Championship results should point deductions or bans be enacted. Add to this the gag order on criticism, and it’s all starting to parody the era of Jean-Marie Balestre.

It appears that the FIA may have inadvertently taken a political sledgehammer to their own testicles. If the cork is to be put back in the bottle, re-looking at the relationship of the Stewards in F1 with the FIA could be the way forward.

Here, Parc Ferme has a couple of suggestions. Firstly, the Stewards should be full-time representatives, annually elected by F1’s stakeholders. This would provide consistency.

Secondly, they should be independently remunerated by the same. These stakeholders would be the FIA, FOM and the GPDA. Funding and voting rights could then be split equally between the parties.

Adopting this approach might reduce some of the finger-pointing at the FIA. It‘s difficult to complain about the Stewards if you were involved in their appointment!