The FIA Attempt To ‘Fix’ Steward Concerns
Written by George Katinger · January 27, 2008
Max Mosley and the FIA have put forth a new solution on how to administer race weekend incidents. Independent stewards overseen by a Ferrari PR executive.
autosport.com: FIA to overhaul stewards’ process
planet-f1.com: Now Max Is Changing The Stewards
We are all aware of the bitter steward appeals process the F1 community went through last season, not to mention the previous years. With the retirement of Tony Scott Andrews the FIA was presented with an opportunity to address the gaps in the steward oversight process.
Here comes a chance to appoint three permanent stewards, with extensive racing backgrounds, and what does Max do? He goes the other way. The stewards will be appointed by the FIA at each race, none from any country with an F1 team, and they will be guided by Allen Donnelly, Max’s personal appointment to the process. Oh yes, he is the guy whose PR company represents Ferrari.
A couple of questions come to mind Max. If none of the stewards are from countries with F1 racing teams (no Italians, British, Germans, Japanese, Austrians, Indians, need apply) how will you find anyone with F1 experience? If the new stewards experience is lacking, will that place a greater weight on Mr. Donnelly’s participation? If there are any appeals involving Ferrari will Mr. Donnelly recuse himself from any participation or guidance with the stewards?
This is not a good thing for F1, the potential for incompetent interpretations and the perception of built-in favoritism for Ferrari will be a drag on the sport all year long. Why can’t the FIA appoint three impartial professionals, preferably three former drivers, as permanent stewards? On an annual basis if necessary?
Get real Max, if you can’t see the potential for conflicts of interest in this process you can’t see anything. Get out now!
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George, with all that has happened in the last 2 weeks of testing, I can’t help but stir the pot. We need to hear about some of the following and chew the fat.
As of the last test Kova was a second faster than Hamilton on the final day of testing…guess hamilton needs traction control.
Go back a bit. Alonso sets fastest time in last years car…
Alonso was fast of the bat in the 08 car before getting the thing dialed in,
Hamilton can’t get his secret lover Alonso out of his head…so he is in the news bad mouthing him for who knows what reason….excuses maybe of not winning with a 17 point lead and 2 races to go.
Lastly is 1 second faster enough to overcome being the number 2 guy behind hamilton and actually win on track..might be just enough.
The stewards. This change effectively means there are no stewards…only someone to pass on the wishes of Max and Bernie….Bernie and Max.
I expect the fans can keep the whole thing on the up and up, plus the drivers and teams making noise. If things start to stink…the internet will show its displeasure. Angering fans will not be good for ratings, and fans will see the truth this season perhaps more clearly, as to the fairness of sport.
Great plan Max, but I think you should change the rumored new name for the stewards.
The Three Blind Mice just doesn’t seem fitting for any professional organization.
Oh wait… did I say “professional?”
Silly me!
George has a great idea, hiring former drivers to be stewards.
So here’s my list of candidates:
1:(of course he’s number 1) Jackie Stewardt, the most obvious pick. He would certainly be knowledgable and unbiased, plus we get a bonus act also…. wait I was going to stop the dredging up of old posts.
2: Nigel Mainsail, he would bring balance to the team and side with the whiners, LH and FA would be the main men this season.
3. Alain Prost, he would bring safety to the sport that has been lacking since his retirement. That way we would get any race or practice cancelled if there was more than a 2% chance it might drizzle sometime during the nest year.
marc, the only way HK will ever be number one is if Mercedes is sucessful in ousting the golden brown boy’s benefactor. Or if HK is leading in points, then he will be dennis the menace’s and LH’s number rival.
and that first post was supposed to say “That way we would get any race or practice cancelled if there was more than a 2% chance it might drizzle sometime during the neXt year.”
Hey mo, did you make a NY resolution to add more venom to your comments this year?
Granted a stewards panel of former drivers may not be easy to put together, but I’d like your take on who should be nominated to fill the role.
I was going to suggest Nigel Stepney, Mike Coughlan and the Renault engineer who stole Mac’s IP in as much as they may not be busy for the foreseeable future.
Lou,
I take all testing times with a grain of salt as they don’t mean much without knowing how heavy the car is. Many teams strip out the weight just to impress potential sponsors to get them on board.
Qualifying in Melbourne will tell all. Can’t wait!!
mo’s sarcastic comment does point out a problem with the stewards; where does one find impartial , qualified people without any national background of the competing countries?
“Hey mo, did you make a NY resolution to add more venom to your comments this year?”
Hey George, I was being serious. I thought my comments were well restrained considering the possibilities.
“mo’s sarcastic comment does point out a problem with the stewards ”
Yes unbiased stewards will be next to impossible to find.
Since the U.S. has no F1 team I am willing to volunteer.
Or if your really picky you might try searching the IRL/Champcar/ALMS pits for people who actually do this every weekend just for the love of the sport. I know a few of them that eat, breath and sleep racing, not necessarily one particular series or team, just racers. Which makes them a very good choice to keep the sport equal for all.
But isn’t this a question that the concord agreement covers?
I doub’t many of the teams are willing to agree to having outsiders overseeing their sport. Which brings us back to having former drivers/unemployed engineers making those critical decisions like how cold the fuel in the car may be sometime after the fifth sunday before the third blue moon on a leap year with ambient temperatures below that stated in the offical guide to traveling in a foreign country after getting really drunk the night before after the fourth sunday in may.
“Which brings us back to having former drivers/unemployed engineers making those critical decisions like how cold the fuel in the car may be sometime after the fifth sunday before the third blue moon on a leap year with ambient temperatures below that stated in the offical guide to traveling in a foreign country after getting really drunk the night before after the fourth sunday in may.”
Now THAT’s the kind of mo comment I’ve come to expect and admire!
I make a point of NEVER looking at winter testing times, even the last test of the last week.
Further, no matter what form is demonstrated at the first race, it is amazing how in the first few races a team’s car can be sorted from also-ran to competitive. How many times did Ferrari leave Melbourne with a dog of a car?
Heikki admitted that his time was set on low fuel and the team sent him out intentionally that way, so he could get a feel for the car in that condition.
How I would love to see mo ron as a steward. If it has come to the point where Max is putting people in place who are obviously going to be biased toward the Red dragons, it is beyond time for him to go.
And I thought Balestre was bad…
Hey, goochie, I left such a huge opening for you and waved you though, but you sat there and didn’t take the pass. So I’m gonna have to take it.
Here’s the line you should have used…I’d love to see mo ron as a steward since that’s what they all are now.
Mo, I am but a backmarker, so it is easy for this type of stuff to pass me…
You know, the FIA could take the same track that NASCAR did. Hire the biggest cheaters to catch the cheaters. Witness: Gary Nelson and Robin Pemberton. Both former crew cheifs with The Winston Cup. Both winners in a series where the “edge” is where ever you can find it.
So my vote would be for:
Gordon Murray (no explaination needed).
Simon McBeth (a pretty good aero guy and presently writing for a magazine)
And I cannot remember the name of him, but he was (is?) the software enginner during the “Non-Traction Control” days of the Ferrari dominance.
(again for obvious reasons)
footnote: I am, to this day, certain that Ferrari had a form of T/C in their cars back then, and it is one of the reasons that the FIA reasoned that it was unpolicable. Imagine you have a set of software code that will only allow a set delta (rate of change) RPM. This delta is easily changable via a line of code insertation. What it would do, is only allow the engine to accelerate at a set rate. So, if you have a high traction day, and the tires are gripping, you set the delta a little higher. Low traction day, lower. Since all F1 engines run on fly-by-wire anyway, that would be very easy to do.
So you would have a chassis / design guy, an Aero guy and a Computer guy, all with F1 experiance and all capable of finding that hidden treasure that the teams have filed away.