FIA and F1 drivers hold fresh talks after racing guidelines controversy

It is a turbulent time for Formula 1’s governing body the FIA, which in recent weeks has seen F1 race director Niels Wittich, long-serving steward Tim Mayer and proposed F2 race director Janette Tan all depart, exits which caught the F1 drivers off-guard. However, talks have taken place regarding a different topic, that being the racing guidelines.

FIA hail ‘most productive meeting’ on F1 driver guidelines

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

The rules surrounding wheel-to-wheel racing in Formula 1 became a hot topic for debate after the incidents involving Max Verstappen and Lando Norris at the United States and Mexican GPs, in the height of their F1 2024 title battle at the time.

Norris received a five-second penalty in Austin for leaving the track and gaining an advantage after Verstappen ushered both of them off the track at Turn 12, Norris having to the circuit ahead, while Verstappen picked up time penalties totalling 20 seconds on the following weekend in Mexico after fresh heated battles with the McLaren driver.

However, on Thursday ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix, chairman of the FIA stewards Garry Connelly brought together the F1 drivers, F1 team representatives and race control, including new race director Rui Marques, for further debate on ways to encourage controlled wheel-to-wheel racing and consistent stewarding.

“The meeting was the most productive one we’ve [ever] attended,” Connelly declared.

“The drivers were fantastic with their input. Very constructive. There was not one negative comment. There was no finger-pointing. It was very inspiring to see the world’s best drivers, communicating clearly and speaking constructively on how we can improve the driving standard guidelines to the benefit of the drivers and to make all of our jobs easier.

“As stewards, we are not here to inflict pain on drivers. We’re here to provide a level playing field. It’s not us against the drivers, it’s the drivers against the drivers and we’re here to make sure everyone gets a fair go.

“We have an open-door policy. The door to the stewards’ room is always open to any driver who wants to come up and talk to us about a decision that’s been taken either in relation to them or in relation to any other driver. We think Thursday’s meeting emphasised that open-door policy.

“The driving standard guidelines are a living document, so every year, as the F1 stewards, we try to meet with the drivers, sporting directors and FIA representatives, to see if we need to tweak the guidelines to use the experience of the last 12 months and see what improvements we can make to ensure consistency. The goal of the guidelines is consistency.

“As stewards, if drivers and teams and the FIA agree that they want rules or guidelines to allow more aggressive driving, we’ll apply those rules or guidelines. Likewise, if they want stricter driving standards, we’ll apply those.”

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Grand Prix Drivers’ Association chairman George Russell offered further insight into the meeting, with the F1 drivers agreeing on tweaks being needed to the rules versus an overhaul.

That is because Russell sees the circuits which F1 visit with big run-off areas, like Austin, are the “root cause” of the issues.

“It was pretty productive,” Russell said of the Qatar meeting to media including PlanetF1.com.

“I think we all agree the guidelines, they don’t need massive changes – I think they just need the odd sentence removed or adjusted.

“But I think everybody’s clear with what happened in Austin, what should have been a penalty, what happened in Mexico was rightly penalised and, generally speaking, over the course of the year, I think the decisions have been pretty good. It was just probably Austin, that was the outlier.

“I think a lot of drivers are aligned that if you are the overtaking car on the inside, rule number one is you have to be able to stay on the circuit.

“If you’re able to stay on the circuit, you are in your right to run the driver wide, as it has been for all of us since go karting.

“We also concluded that most of these issues are down to the circuits. You know, we spoke about a number of the issues in Austin, I think a lot of the overtakes wouldn’t have even been attempted had there been gravel there, such as Austria, Turn 4, the downhill right-hander. You know, you’re going to go in the gravel if you go one or two per cent over the limit.

“Silverstone at Stowe, you know, obviously had great racing a couple of years ago [2022] with Lewis and Checo and Charles – ultimately, everyone was off the track, but that’s because the track allowed you.

“The circuits are the root cause, and the guidelines are kind of like an interim fix that we need to agree on until we can get all of the circuits in a proper manner.”