Stewarding the stewards

The FIA World Motor Sport Council made some important changes yesterday to the way stewards decisions are reached and explained to the public. This year, like previous years there were some big calls by the stewards which had an effect on the outcome of the world championship; I'm thinking in particular of the penalty Lewis Hamilton got in Spa and the one Sebastien Bourdais received in for colliding with Felipe Massa in Fuji.

One of the problems with these decisions is that they were not fully explained to the public and so many people arrived at the conclusion that there was some sort of 'fix' going on. Now the WMSC has approved a report by Alan Donnelly, who was the convener of the stewards this year, which makes some important recommendations. First the FIA will harness new technology to allow video replays to be analysed more quickly, so decisions can be made and penalties served, during the race. As multiple TV and CCTV pictures are generally the only means of judging an incident, the stewards need to have the best equipement available and now it seems they will have. Also, crucially, where an incident has been judged using video footage unseen by the public, this footage will now be made public on the FIA and FOM websites, together with the explanation. This is a great development and a real coup for transparency. It's been forced on them really, by the rise of new media, in particular You Tube. It is in Bernie Ecclestone's interest and that of the FIA, that any such footage remains in their control, not You Tube's. [ more ]

The on board camera footage of Hamilton's rash moment at the start in Fuji, widely available on You Tube in the days after the event, explained that situation very effectively. At Magny Cours this year I was sceptical about the penalty given to Hamilton for cutting the chicane on the first lap when trying to pass Vettel. It wasn't shown on TV, only on board Hamilton's car, which was inconclusive. When I quizzed him on it, Donnelly invited me to the stewards room at Silverstone, the following race, to view the CCTV footage and it was quiet clear that Hamilton was going too fast and was not past Vettel legitimately when he cut the chicane.

Now you will all be able to see the footage of incidents and judge for yourselves, quickly, after the race.

The final note is on the call for ex drivers to become stewards. The FIA has said that any ex driver is eligible to apply for a stewarding licence and work his way up to F1 level. But they will be one of many stewards, rather than a permanent one and that is a good thing. In reality there are very few drivers who will have the time or inclination to do this. And from my experience in America with IndyCars, it's not a good idea to have one all-powerful ex driver making the big calls as they become too powerful and they don't always make the right calls anyway.

The great opportunity for F1 stewards now is to show that they can make the right decisions for the right reasons and the sport will benefit from that. There will still be tight calls where they need to hear from the drivers involved before making a judgement, but on the whole we should get clear answers. And, unlike the referee in soccer, they have the luxury of being able to take the time to get it demonstrably right.

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