Last Updated on November 22 2025, 11:11 pm

The referee in any sport is often blamed for giving an incorrect decision. In football the International regulatory authorities have attempted to mitigate poor decisions by referees by introducing a video review system.

And its the same in F1 as the race director and the stewards can significantly affect the outcome of an entire Grand Prix with a decision. In Silverstone this year, Oscar Piastri was penalised ten seconds whilst leading the race for excessive breaking under the safety car. This cost him the Grand Prix.

Yet a week earlier, George Russell had been referred to the stewards for a similar infringement, but he escaped punishment. ‘Where is the consistency?’ is often the cry from the drivers following a race defining decision from race control.

 

 

 

Row over Piastri penalty

The latest row is over the penalty handed again to Piastri during the recent Sao Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil. Following a brief safety car period, Kimi Antonelli who was in third place got too much wheel spin at the restart and was immediately under pressure from Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri.

With the entrance to turn one being so wide, there’s room for three abreast on the approach, Yet as the circuit turns almost 90 degrees left, the track narrows meaning three into two just doesn’t go. Leclerc decided to play it safe and make his move around the outside – Piastri went for the inside apex.

Yet Antonelli saw him coming and closed the door, leaving the Australian enough room not to hit the barrier. Yet Piastri locked up, clipped the side of the Mercedes which bounced into Leclerc striping the tyre from his front left wheel rim and the Monegasque’s race was run.

Piastri was awarded a ten second penalty for his alleged misdemeanour although a number of ex-driver paddock media experts disagreed. Such a moment was once deemed as a racing incident, although since the introduction of the ‘F1 driving standards racing guidelines’ to the stewards, more and more drivers believe they are being punished for what used to be a legal move.

Why the FIA recently changed the F1 driver number allocation regulations

 

 

 

Sainz furious with F1 stewards

Carlos Sainz himself the victim of some dubious stewarding decision this week, was keen to give his views on the matter when speaking to assembled media in sin City. “Maybe I’ve said too much. I shouldn’t,” the Spaniard admitted. His press officer nodded, but the Sainz was already in full flow.

“If you look closely, there’s no doubt about who is at fault,” insists the Williams driver arguing Antonelli had squeezed his rival. “That Oscar got a penalty is unacceptable. For us to represent the top of motorsport, this cannot happen.” A frustrated Sainz continued once he’d stepped away from the media circle: “Oscar couldn’t have done anything else. Anyone who has ever driven a racing car knows that. I don’t understand it.”

Carlos has experienced his own run ins this year with the stewards on which he reflected. “I don’t understand why I was penalised in Zandvoort and Austin. There have been several decisions this year that make no sense to me. This is not the direction we should be heading.” The FIA has scheduled a meeting at the Qatar Grand Prix to address concerns over officiating.

“You can debate how the guidelines are written—are they black and white? Or are they meant as guidelines, not strict rules?” continued the Spaniard. “But what’s clear is that if incidents are interpreted like they were in Brazil, that’s not okay. Right now it feels like someone is always found guilty.”

Red Bull exploit cost cap rules

 

 

 

FIA: “Car must be under control”

Part of the new FIA guidelines on overtaking is that the attacker must have his car fully under control.Due to Piastri’s lock up, it was adjudicated in Brazil his car was not in fact under control.

“I have an issue with how they [the stewards] judge locked wheels. For the stewards, a lock-up apparently means a driver has no control. But that’s wrong. Even with a locked wheel you can still hit the apex,” Sainz concluded.

George Russell, president of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, agreed. “There’s an idea that a car that locks a wheel is automatically out of control,” he said. “But Turn 1 in Brazil is cambered inside. Lock-ups are normal there—you still have control.”

Kimi Antonelli holds a different view of the incident and believes under the current regulations the stewards had no choice but to issue a penalty to the McLaren driver.“If you look at the guidelines, then Oscar made a mistake,” the Mercedes driver said. “He wasn’t level with my mirror. We’ll discuss it in Qatar for the future.” There is a bog pow wow planned in Qatar between the FIA and the drivers, which is what the Italian was referring to. The drivers must get the FIA guidelines altered, or at least enforce the fact they are for guidance only.

Leclerc penalty: Las Vegas GP

 

 

 

Verstappen on guidelines: “i’d shred em’

Verstappen, asked about the current state of racing rules, and he didn’t sugar coat his answer: “I don’t always like the rules we have, but I simply follow them as they’re written.” He was then pressed on whether the F1 racing rules were too complicated.  “You could say that, yes. The problem is that the more rules you create, the harder you make it for yourself.”

the conversation moved to the driers’ meeting with the FIA and the future of the stewards’ guidelines, but Max wouldn’t be draw.  “I think Carlos and George [Russell] already have everything prepared for that one, so I’ll just sit back and relax.”

And for theatrical purposes, Max continued:  “I’d just…” He paused, before mimicking the action of feeding documents into a shredder.

 

 

 

Professional F1 stewards is the answer

Russell also banged the drum once again for full time professional stewards, rather than the part time grace and favour method of selecting stewards from the local FIA association. “If we had the same stewards at every race, we could have ongoing conversations and explain the subtleties—like what it’s actually like to drive a Formula 1 car through somewhere like Turn 1 at Brazil, where lock-ups are inevitable,” he said.

The president of the FIA addressed this matter, earlier this season and expressed sympathy for full time salaried F1 race stewards. “It’s very nice talk,” Mohammed Ben Sulayem told Autosport. “But when they say professional, and they want professional, they don’t want to pay for it. That is so obvious.”

Ben Sulayem went on to question who would pay for such an epxneisve global team of motorcading referees, clearly arguing it was not coming from the current budget of the FIA. “But I don’t really sometimes understand. It’s always about the FIA. Why are we doing this? Why are we doing that? But did anyone go to FOM?”

The FIA president is calling for money from the commercial rights holders to implement such a plan, just as he did when FOM wanted to raise the number of Sprint’s from 3 to 6 – and succeeded.

 

 

 

FIA bold claims over F1 2026 regulations

As Formula One hurtles towards the end of its 75th celebratory season, the teams back at base are now focusing on delivering their racing prototypes for next season. In what is the biggest technical regulation shake up in F1’s history, much has been written about a potential radical change in the current pecking order.

Much of the focus has been on the new power units and whether they will run out of electrical charge, embarrassing the sport at certain circuits where braking and electrical regeneration is low. To cope with the incremental torque the new powertrains will deploy, the unusual decision was taken for the chassis and aerodynamics to also undertake an extraordinary overhaul.

Banned for decades (except for DRS), driver operated movable aero parts will feature on the 2026 cars.  The driver will operate these to increase downforce through the corners, and then reduce the drag and downforce when hurtling down the straight….. READ MORE