George Russell says "multibillion-dollar" F1 must stop relying on volunteer stewards

George Russell says Formula 1, as a multibillion-dollar sport, should replace volunteer stewards with full-time, paid officials

Mercedes driver George Russell has argued that, as a "multibillion-dollar sport", Formula 1 should not be relying on volunteer stewards.

The stewarding of F1 races has become a talking point once again, bringing arguments for permanent and paid stewards to the surface. Carlos Sainz claimed that stewarding should be of a similar standard to the analysis from TV pundits and former F1 drivers Karun Chandhok, Anthony Davidson and Jolyon Palmer, which he watches after a grand prix.

"Yeah, well, I respect those three that he mentioned from an analysis perspective, and I think they do get things absolutely spot on," Russell told the media ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix when asked about Sainz's comments.

"The benefit they have, versus the stewards, is they've got, one, no pressure, and two, they've got time on their hands not to make a decision there in the moment, and three, they're not following guidelines.

"They're following their own view of their racing experience and knowledge, which, for what it's worth, I think the stewards have, but their job isn't to make a decision based upon their view.

"In racing knowledge, their job is to make a decision based upon the guidelines. That means the guidelines need to be correct. If the guidelines aren't correct, the decisions won't be correct.

"But you can't have a guideline for every circumstance. So it goes back to this point where I think consistent stewarding from individuals who've got that racing experience, who can see an incident for what it is, is where we will get the most consistent penalties for a given incident. And that's where the likes of Anthony, Jolyon and Karun have that benefit."

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Russell argued that consistent stewarding is required and that, as the stewards have "such great power", they need to be in paid positions rather than in volunteer roles.

"I don't think we need to get necessarily those specific three, but I do think those three would be great," the Mercedes driver added.

"But somebody's got to stick their hand in their pocket to pay the stewards the correct amount.

"It would be to have consistent stewarding over the course of 24 races. At the end of the day, it's a job. These people... It's a multibillion-dollar sport. We shouldn't be having volunteers having such great power in certain roles. So somebody's got to pay for these people, in my eyes."