FIA stewards come together for yearly special event
F1 News
- Nicolás Quarles van Ufford
More than 150 stewards were present at the FIA International Stewards Program, an event held annually since 2017. During the event, professionals share their expertise on various racing classes across the globe.
FIA Deputy President for Sport Graham Stoker opened the event by emphasizing the importance of the role of stewards in racing before having a look at several incidents that happened over the last year, ranging from accidents to parc ferme infringements.
They discussed cases from Formula 1, Formula E, Formula 2 and DTM, with each case allowing for the stewards to ask questions to help them in future decision making.
"Motorsport stewarding is a tremendously complex challenge, and we must continue to target excellence in this area in order to ensure safe and fair competition," FIA president Jean Todt said.
"This is the reason the FIA decided to host the International Stewards Programme on an annual basis. I’m confident that through this interactive approach we will keep to set the benchmark of international stewarding."
Stewards have and will always be part of controversies in F1. Last season's Canadian Grand Prix, when Sebastian Vettel got dealt a five-second penalty for rejoining the track dangerously. The stewards even got death threats from angry Tifosi in that case. The FIA actively trying to raise the level of stewarding in an interactive way can only be seen as a good initiative, right?