18/09/2025 10:30
Carlos Sainz has reiterated his desire for F1 to move to permanent
stewards following the successful overturning of his Dutch GP
penalty after a Right of Review. At Zandvoort, Sainz made contact
with Liam Lawson at Turn 1, and was awarded a 10-second time
penalty and two penalty points on his licence for causing a
collision, but felt aggrieved at the nature of the sanction. After
the race, Williams lodged a Right of Review with the stewards, with
this being held after the Italian GP, once the original stewards
panel had reconvened to decide if Williams had presented "new,
relevant, and significant" evidence demanded to re-open the case.
Camera footage obtained after the decision and Zandvoort race were
submitted, with the stewards ultimately deciding to cancel the two
penalty points awarded to the Spanish driver, but could not remove
the time penalty as this had been served. The removal of the points
was Williams' intention, but F1's rotating panel of stewards has
come under scrutiny, with those serving voluntarily, with no fixed
person serving at every race. The cost of who would cover the
salaries of permanent stewards has been raised as one barrier, but
Sainz is adamant that F1 should move in this direction. "F1 and the
FIA all agree that [permanent stewards] should be the way forward,
where at least two of the three stewards are permanent and we have
one rotational for teaching purposes," Sainz told media, including
RacingNews365 , in Baku. "For sporting fairness purposes, it should
be to have one rotational but two permanent, and we shouldn't care
about who pays, because there is enough money in this sport to pay
those salaries in the same way there's enough money in the sport to
pay the salaries of all the other people. "So if that's the right
way forward, I cannot believe we're talking about those salaries.
"What would help is that if I knew the referee was the same in
every race, for me, I would know the pattern and , through years of
working with them, how they were going to judge an incident in that
moment. "When you work with different races with different
referees, it is very difficult to understand if [a penalty] is
coming or not. "I think not everyone agrees that they can use the
argument of football. "We have different referees and no one
complains, but there could be a guy who gets penalised two or three
times and he will start blaming 'the steward that hates me." "So I
understand where they come from, those not in favour or permanent
stewards, I understand, but I just have a very clear opinion on
it." The article continues below. Sainz on Right of Review process
Sainz has been subject to a Right of Review before, at the 2023
Australian GP where he was handed a devastating five-second time
penalty for hitting Fernando Alonso at one of the late restarts,
dropping him out of the points. There, the stewards rejected the
review, but the four-time grand prix winner was thankful to the
stewards for reopening his case as it was "black and white." "After
Zandvoort, you saw me quite upset about the whole situation because
I was very convinced that we had a point, and they were quite open
to the discussion," he added. "I could tell that they had a good
conversation and realisation that maybe the judgment was not fully
correct, and there were enough mechanisms to open the discussion
again. "I think that is a positive step, and the fact that they
even took the opportunity to cancel the penalty points is a good
sign. "I'm not saying every case and scenario should be the same,
but cases like that were pretty obvious. "The problem, I think, is
that it was not as obvious as it could be, down to interpretation,
but it was black and white, like there should never have been a
penalty. "I think it was so obvious the moment we presented the new
evidence, that it was enough to open the discussion again and get
it to correct itself."
