F1 needs permanent stewards with “real salaries”, says Russell

George Russell reckons it is time the FIA has full-time employed, professional race stewards to improve consistency and help drivers interpret the guidelines.

It comes after explosive races at the US GP in Austin and especially the Mexican Grand Prix, where Max Verstappen was issued with two 10-second time penalties.

Verstappen was penalised for forcing title rival Lando Norris wide at Turn 4 and leaving the track and gaining an advantage at Turn 7 in Mexico City.

The world champion contested both decisions while, ahead of this weekend’s Brazil Grand Prix, Norris said he felt that “deep down” Verstappen knew the manoeuvre was wrong.

It has reopened the interpretations of F1’s loosely-worded rulebook and Russell, who is a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, says that while he does not believe the rulebook needs ripping up, it does now require a stable body of race officials to improve the consistency of the penalties being dished out.

Russell said: “On a personal view, not a view of the collective, I don’t think it [the rulebook] needs ripping up at all. It just needs some fine adjustments or a small addition. It’s all pretty clear.

“The guidelines need to be in place but it also needs to be remembered they are guidelines. There’s not a written regulation and it’s down to the stewards to take the best judgement.

“When things come down to interpretation, and when things are about consistency, you can argue if you were to have the same stewards week in, week out, the consistency will be better because they’re interpreting things in the same manner and the drivers understand exactly what they expect in a given circumstance.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

“So I do feel, again a personal view, not one of on behalf of the drivers, but personal view, I do think we’re at a point now in this sport that we do need a full-time professional steward in where they earn a real salary.

“They’re not effectively volunteers and I do think within the pool of stewards we’ve got now, they are definitely up to standard. So it’s not saying anything bad about the current stewards, it’s just saying I feel we should be having system stewarding week in, week out.”

The FIA wishes to speak to drivers about the racing rules to provide clearer guidelines in the future. However, Verstappen – who has made several references to falling out of love with F1 – says the series has become over-regulated.

Speaking in Sao Paulo ahead of the race, he said: “It’s never going to be perfect because even if you remove rules, then you get into a battle, then you want more rules because it’s not clear what is allowed or not.

“Then when you have too many rules, you want less rules. It just keeps on going left and right all the time. Do I think it’s over-regulated? Probably yes. I mean, in general, the rulebook is only getting bigger and bigger every single year, I don’t think that’s always the right way forward.”

Russell however says that along with professional stewards, the guidelines do need further clarification but they only become highlighted when the wording is tested.

He added: “If you read the rules, there are lines that say if you’re driving erratically or dangerous, you’ll be punished and you can argue if a driver outbreaks himself and doesn’t make the corner on the exit that is erratic because you’re driving off the racetrack. 

“So there is an element of interpretation there, for sure it does need to be cleaned up a little bit.

“At the end of the day, every incident is different. For sure, now things are evolving… it’s like the safety of the cars, you need a bad accident to happen before you make this real progress.

“It’s the same with the driving regulations. You need something or decisions to be incorrect or things to be pushed beyond its limit before you realise change needs to happen.”