Carlos Sainz’s push for full-time F1 stewards receives strong fan support

Williams driver Carlos Sainz’s call for full-time stewards to be introduced to Formula 1 has been met with strong support from fans.

After initially receiving a 10-second penalty and two penalty points for a collision with Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson at the Dutch Grand Prix, the Spanish driver had the punishment overturned after a right of review process with the FIA. 

While speaking to the media ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Sainz branded the decision to reverse the penalty a “breakthrough” but argued that full-time stewards should be employed in order to avoid this situation in the future.

“As a group, FIA, if we all agree, that should be the way forward where at least two of the three stewards are permanent and we have one rotational for teaching purposes and sporting fairness purposes, to have always one rotational but two permanent,” he explained.

Sainz’s comments have received strong support from fans of the championship, with the subject becoming a popular topic of discussion on Reddit when Motorsport.com’s article was shared there.

“He’s not wrong. We need consistency and that comes with permanent full-time stewards,” one fan wrote.

Agreeing, another commenter threw out the idea of bringing in former Red Bull driver and four-time champion Sebastian Vettel.

Carlos Sainz, Williams

Photo by: Pirelli

“Half full-time, half in the current format. Perhaps bring a former driver in as a consultant to sense check things. Dreaming here… Perhaps all the F1 money being made can be sent to Sebastian Vettel to convince him to be the permanent lead steward?”

The current FIA stewards are volunteers, meaning they are not paid for the role. “We shouldn’t care about who pays because there’s enough money in the sport to pay those salaries, the same way that there’s enough money in the sport to pay the salaries of all the other people,” the Spanish driver explained.

“It’s genuinely insane this hasn’t been a thing for decades… but here we are. The old boys’ club needs to stop. Pay people to do a job, be able to hold them to a professional standard. It’s not rocket science,” another fan wrote.

Another message of support for Sainz’s argument read: “I think some consistency would be welcome, and then they can address issues with individuals later. Even if the stewards make annoying decisions, it’s better if those decisions are consistent so drivers and teams can plan around it.

“For example, it sucks if stewards are lax about divebombing or running people of the track. But it’s more annoying if it’s fine at one race, and then the next race has new stewards who interpret the rules differently and the exact same kind of event that was ruled a racing incident last week is a 5-second penalty this week.”

The discussion is still ongoing, but at the time of writing it is difficult to find arguments against Sainz’s views.

More fan responses

“This sport spends billions per year. Chucking a couple of million into full time professional referees should be obvious and easy,” wrote ‘2020bowman’.

‘Cleanryder’ added: “If full-time stewards would bring much needed consistency in their decision-making, I’m all for it.”

Another user, ‘triguy96’ commented: “I think most people agree on a system where there is one or more permanent stewards and then a system of rotating stewards. I think the permanent stewards should be as non-biased as possible, preferably people who haven’t raced in F1 but have raced in similar series. The two permanent stewards should be available to the drivers for discussion (like the race director is) and decisions should be clarified at race meetings.

“The rotating stewards are there to keep the permanent stewards in check. It might be that the permanent stewards start to make the sport too stale, or as it is now, allow far too much dirty driving. Which the rotating stewards will moderate. Within the pool of rotating stewards you could even have some people who are somewhat controversial (a Villeneuve comes to mind) just to explore the breadth of racing opinions.

“Obviously, these stewards should be backed up by a robust and simple racing rule book. One that not only follows the accepted norms of Formula 1 racing, but also fits with other series. Punishments for offenses should be clearly laid out, but leeway can be allowed in circumstances that the stewards see fit.

“If the permanent stewards are well regarded like Charlie Whiting used to be, you would see this work really well. Picking those stewards would be one of the hardest parts of the process.”

Finally, ‘Cheeriodude_number2’ wrote: “What’s the point in everyone who’s in F1 being there full time, if the people who penalise and punish are only there part time, it’s never made sense.”

Photos from Azerbaijan GP – Thursday