Is it possible to contract a set of race officials for the whole season? How practical is that? I believe that is the only way you can get fairly consistent decisions being made at races. What I might see and interpret as an infringement in one race, another official at another race might rule as fine. Or what you might see is if a particular racer does something and isnt penalised by one official, another official at another race might just give him the book if he dares repeat anything even close..and I believe that is what happened to Rosberg Sunday. And Smithers, I understand the point you are making about the need for race officials to be consistent, but I dont know how that will work with different officials at different races.
Even having the same stewards could bring about a problem of a driver being judged unfairly based on their reputation. For example, somebody like everyone's favorite, Pastor Maldonado may rarely get the benefit of the doubt.
While I agree with your point, still the officials will be forced to be more consistent. If you give a Maldonado a penalty for some infringement then the same official will (i hope) be forced to do the same with others. And if they are contracted for a season then there should be some penalty on that official for inconsistency. But I guess that will end up with too many problems.
Crikey... What happens when the stewards stewarding get it wrong? Public lashings? ;p A consistent group of stewards may certainly help, unless they hire some that are absolute rule nazis who just bugger it all up with over penalizing to feel like they're doing something.
If the rules are written correctly there should be no room for error by the stewards. No ifs, no buts. That's the problem with the current status quo.
I would just like to congratulate the stewards on their consistency regards Nico Rosberg's reluctance to turn his steering wheel and using the W07 as a F1 car seeking missile like was seen in Austria and Hockenheim which quite rightly lead to Nico receiving penalties. What I cant understand is Anthony Davidson of Sky saying that the latter manoeuvre by Nico was 50-50 but the Austrian manoeuvre was Nico's fault when the onboard footage clearly shows Nico's steering wheel in the straight position far longer on Max manoeuvre than on the Lewis manoeuvre. All I can say is thank god for quality F1 stewarding. It is now clear to see that Nico will resort to desperate measures when in a losing situation which has made him the biggest target on the stewards radar.
Even the ones that should be black and white don't get applied correctly. It would be a good start to get those working and everybody understanding them (track limts, yellow flags etc.). Then attempt to simplify the more ambiguous rules. Easier said than done I know.
Bring back gravel traps instead of tarmac run off! Or put dirty great big tyre barriers where you don't want drivers to go, they'll soon respect track limits then!
You are right...regardless of how rules are written there seems to be some little loophole somewhere.... maybe the officials should get penalty points too...which I dont think is a bad idea. They make a lot of mistakes and build up penalty points and there are out! Sounds good? workable? I doubt....lol
While we would want that, we still want to see good competitive, safe racing...so what is the compromise?
I don't know why the FIA chickened out of the three strikes and you're out track limits rule. It was simple and easy, it also worked. Obviously not perfect but with the sensors it was consistent
because then they'd have to punish tomorrows cash cow Verstappen. the sport is utterly corrupt, interested only in the merchandising of cult personalities, it's only the red, white and blue glasses that half the people on here wear that don't let them see it, whilst the majority of the rest can see it but refuse to accept the truth of it. The Stewards ARE consistent, not in their application of the rules, but to those who they apply those rules to.
At least our glasses, whichever colour lenses they are, allow us to see more than the blinkered ones you wear. As for red, white and blue, I presume you are including anything that is British, Dutch, French, Australian, Russian, which actually means we are quite unbiased when we are able to consider all the drivers and teams that race with these flag colours?
I'm surry but i just want to say. charlie whiting and the safety dar driver go to race... bernie has a harem and load so hanger son traipsing about after him are we SERIOUSLY saying its impractical to employ 3 ex drivers to go to all races and consistently call.. and be accountable.... the decisions.
I guess the question is, should that even be a penalty at all? If a leading driver decides to go that deep, then the trailing driver can drop back and go for the undercut and likely come out on top in the whole deal. I get that safety is a concern, but what the rules are doing is basically restricting how racing is conducted in a formula that's already struggling with overtaking and action.