Sainz suggests TV analysts could solve F1 stewarding issues

Carlos Sainz believes Formula 1 could eliminate many of its ongoing stewarding controversies by placing two or three recently retired F1 drivers on the FIA’s race-control panels – arguing that their insights routinely outperform the sport’s current, highly debated driving-guidelines system.

The Williams driver, who also serves as one of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) directors, spoke ahead of Thursday night’s key meeting between F1 drivers and the FIA in Qatar.

The summit dissected the state of F1’s racing-incident guidelines after a season filled with disputed penalties and clashes of interpretation.

‘My future ideal is no guidelines’

Sainz has been vocal all year about the confusion surrounding the guidelines, which were originally created to bring clarity but have instead – according to many drivers—generated new problems.

Asked whether he still believes the rules are necessary, Sainz pointed to the work of several broadcaster analysts as proof that recent racing experience leads to clearer, more consistent judgement.

“I've seen some analysis done of quite a lot of the incidents, and I think there was some of them Karun Chandhok, in some of them Jolyon Palmer, some of them Anthony Davidson,” he said.

“Every time I see this analysis that they do and the verdict that they give from racing drivers that have been recently racing, I think they do a very good analysis and they put the blame correctly most of the time on who actually has the blame, or if it's actually just a racing incident.”

This, he argued, is the model the FIA should be following.

“My future ideal is no guidelines and people that are able to judge these sort of incidents, as well as these three people that I just mentioned do after the races.”

Impressed With the Experts

Sainz emphasised that his view reflects personal opinion, not an official GPDA stance, but said he is consistently impressed by the quality of post-race breakdowns.

“Again, this is just my opinion, but I'm quite impressed at the job that some of the broadcasts do after a race with this in-depth analysis of each of the incidents and how they apply blame or no blame into certain scenarios.”

He continued: “I think that's a level of analysis and a level of steward-ness, if you want to call it that way, that I think is very high level. It probably doesn't mean that we will agree 100% on the cases of what these three people, three ex-drivers, give, but I think they are a lot of times are very close to being 90% correct.”

The Spaniard said their judgement aligns closely with how current drivers would see incidents unfold on track.

“I really feel like they understood what happened in that incident and the judgement that they take. And this doesn't mean that the stewards don't do a good job, it just means what I see after the race from these people is actually a very high level.”

Sainz believes such former racers could handle incident-by-incident assessment without the restrictive structure of today’s guideline document.

“I think without guidelines they would be able to judge each decision correctly and there wouldn't be a bias or anything like that.”

Creating More problems than Solutions

Sainz then expanded on why the current system frustrates drivers. He said the guidelines inadvertently push stewards toward artificially assigning blame.

“I think first we need to sit together, analyse quite a few of the incidents, and I think there's been quite a lot of division in opinion between drivers, FIA stewards, just different ways to judge different incidents.”

He added: “I think this year there's been quite a bit of confusion regarding a few of them. I think we need to sit together and go through them and analyse them calmly out of a heat of the moment.

“We are now on a Thursday before a race, and try to all hopefully come up with a solution, a better solution for the future.”

Speaking in his own capacity, Sainz did not hold back.

“My personal opinion on here - I'm not talking from a GPDA perspective, I'm just talking as Carlos Sainz - is that there is potential to do better. And I think the guidelines themselves have created more problems than solutions to a lot of issues that have happened this year in the ways we judge incidents.”

Most concerning to him is the disappearance of the “racing incident” category.

“There's been barely any room for racing incidents this year. There's always been either white or black because we've been supported by the guidelines, and the guidelines haven't allowed racing incidents to be judged as racing incidents, because there was always a tyre in front, or behind a mirror... whatever the guidelines say, I don't know them by heart!

“It's been in that sense a bit of not successful implementation of those guidelines.”

Read also:

Inside the FIA-F1 driver summit in Qatar: What was the outcome?

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via X and Facebook