Yesterday at 10:10
George Russell has suggested F1 should implement a consistent team
of stewards so drivers have a better understanding of racing
guidelines. A recent incident involving Carlos Sainz and Liam
Lawson saw the former handed a time penalty and two penalty points
on his super licence at the Dutch Grand Prix. Williams moved to
protest Sainz's penalty points as it felt the Spaniard's punishment
was too severe. Following a successful right of review process,
Sainz had the two penalty points on his licence removed. F1's
stewarding team typically changes from race to race, with no
permanent fixed team in place. Russell believes situations similar
to Sainz's could be avoided if a more consistent group of stewards
governed on-track activities. "I don't think there's ever going to
be a time when everybody's happy," Russell told media including
RacingNews365 . "I don't remember the number, I think it's 25
different stewards across the course of a whole racing season. "You
can take 20 racing drivers, when you see a 50-50 incident, probably
we'll have slightly different views on this." Russell suggested
drivers will learn to understand how the stewards deal with certain
incidents and fine-tune their own driving to meet their precedents.
"This is why I always believe these consistent stewards across the
whole season, at least, you will learn their viewpoint on incidents
and their interpretation of certain things," he said. "Carlos'
penalty probably was not deserved. "Maybe a different stewarding,
it would have been different. Maybe it wouldn't have, but at least
you have that element of consistency across the races."
