Red Bull team principal Christian Horner strongly endorsed the FIA’s decision to part ways with Johnny Herbert, who has served as an advisor to the stewards since 2010.

The FIA announced this week it had mutually parted ways with Herbert as his work was “incompatible” with his media role. Herbert has commented on his role as a steward in quotes supplied to gambling websites, which offer them to media.

One such quote was distributed following last year’s Austrian Grand Prix, in which the panel that Herbert was on gave Max Verstappen a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision. Herbert explained this was the “hardest” penalty available for his collision with Lando Norris.

Horner denied any link between Herbert’s ousting and Verstappen, but said his departure is the right move.

“It’s absolutely nothing to do with Max, but absolutely the right decision,” Horner told Sky. “You cannot have stewards working in the media.

“You don’t have it in the premiership [football league], you don’t have it in any other form of professional sport, it’s totally inappropriate. You’re either on the sporting, regulatory side or you’re on the media side. You can’t have a foot in both camps.”

The FIA rotates its four stewards from race to race. Herbert was one of four ex-drivers who performed the role and covered one-third of last year’s 24 rounds.

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However some in F1, such as McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, believe the FIA should use the same stewards at every round.

“We’re in a multi-billion dollar sport, a lot on the line, stewarding is not easy,” he said. “I think you need to have full-time stewards, they need to be paid.”

Brown believes having the same stewards every weekend would allow the FIA to loosen aspects of the regulations and allow for a greater degree of interpretation.

“We need to look at the rule book, I think it’s a bit too prescriptive,” he said. “And if you get some stewards in full time, give them a little bit more leniency, they know what’s right and wrong versus this ‘race to the apex’ stuff because it’s a bit too prescriptive and it’s just taking a little bit of the racing out of it. So I think it’ll be fixed.”

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