Whiting not keen on permanent stewards for F1

Despite recent controversy, FIA race director Charlie Whiting doesn't believe Formula 1 is in need of a panel of permanent stewards.

F1's FIA stewards recently came under the spotlight as a result of a controversial call made against Max Verstappen in the US Grand Prix at Austin.

Over the past twelve months, the stewards' rulings have often been criticised, with a lack of consistency as the main point of contention.

Calls for a permanent panel of officials, a system adopted by IndyCar, have been made, notably by Haas' Guenther Steiner.

• Inconsistent stewarding? Charlie Whiting begs to differ

"Every time, decisions are being made differently and this sometimes hurts the small teams more," the Austrian team manager told Speed Week.

"In my view, the way out of this is to appoint permanent stewards who really know their business," Steiner added.

The idea has garnered support in F1, but Whiting, while open to dialogue, remains unconvinced of the necessity to change.

"We are discussing this all the time," Whiting said.

"But we believe that the appointment of four permanent stewards for the whole year will only lead to many new questions.

"I do not want to go into details, but at the moment we consider our direction to be more reasonable," the top FIA official added.

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