Former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has urged the FIA to let the drivers race more aggressively next season.
Motorsport’s governing body received criticism for handing out unnecessary penalties during the 2024 F1 season, or for punishing drivers too severely.
Several of the complaints came from the drivers themselves, in particular when Kevin Magnussen received a one-race ban for accumulating 12 penalty points within 12 months.
The Danish driver became the first to be handed the punishment since the introduction of the penalty points system and missed the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
A complaint from Magnussen and several rivals was that the former Haas driver received penalty points for incidents which should not have warranted them, resulting in an urge for the system to be clarified.
Di Montezemolo also agrees that the drivers are being punished unfairly, for contact and exceeding track limits.
He has called for the FIA to not block drivers from showing emotion, and to encourage them to go for an overtake.
“F1 is made up of healthy duels,” said Di Montezemolo, speaking on the ‘La Politica nel Pallone’ on Radio GR Parlamento.
“What would they have done in the duel between [Gilles] Villeneuve and [Rene] Arnoux. Would they have put them in jail?”
That was regarding the titanic duel between the former Ferrari and Renault drivers on the concluding laps of the 1979 French Grand Prix at Dijon when they went wheel-to-wheel, banging tyres on occasion.
“I think we are exaggerating, both in terms of physical contact and in going beyond the lines of the track.
“Formula 1 is becoming a precision watch. We must leave room for emotion, courage and the ability of the drivers who must not look at millimetres.
“It is one of the points on which to reflect to change things a bit.”
