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.”
“As stewards, if drivers and teams and the FIA agree that they want rules or guidelines to allow more aggressive driving, we’ll apply those rules or guidelines. Likewise, if they want stricter driving standards, we’ll apply those.”
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.”
Verstappen is one of many drivers who has argued for the greater use of gravel traps to encourage drivers to stay within the track limits.
“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.”
“Of course, when the track is naturally the limits with the gravel being there, then no one even want to go around the outside because they know that,” he added. “So you then try to go for a cut-back or set yourself up in a different way.”
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
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