Carlos Sainz voices ‘very clear opinion’ on substantial FIA change

Carlos Sainz claims key bodies within the sport “all agree” on the idea of having permanent FIA stewards, but there is no consensus about its implementation.

The topic of permanent stewards reared its head again when Sainz had two penalty points taken off his Super Licence following contact with Liam Lawson at Zandvoort, with the Williams driver pushing the case for fixed stewards throughout the calendar.

Carlos Sainz has ‘very, very clear opinion’ on permanent FIA stewards

Arguments against permanent stewards in the past have included who will finance the salaries of those individuals. The role is currently voluntary, with only expenses covered.

Changes were made to the stewarding ahead of F1 2025. Where four stewards were on the panel at each race weekend – a former driver and one steward appointed by the national sporting authority overseeing that race weekend among the four – the majority of the grands prix in F1 2025 are now set to feature only three stewards.

Meanwhile, there are six ‘high workload’ race weekends where four stewards oversee the action.

Those include the Australian Grand Prix, the Chinese, Canadian, Singapore, Mexico City and Sao Paulo GPs.

With most of the panel rotating on a race-by-race basis, Sainz and others have voiced concerns in the past about potentially inconsistent decision-making, with the Williams driver highlighting post-race investigations as an area to be addressed.

The 31-year-old would like to see the finishing order be the result as every driver crosses the line, rather than deferring certain investigations until after the race – and voiced his support of having stability on the panel.

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Explaining his knowledge of how the stewards go about their decision-making, Sainz told media in Baku: “I don’t know how they approach each situation, whether they’re going to leave it for later or decide in the moment.

“I think it’s fair to say there’s relative pressure from media, drivers and everyone to want to know that, when the race finishes, you want to know the actual result, rather than having to wait two hours to actually decide.

“I think we are all unconsciously or consciously, maybe, putting a bit of pressure on the stewards to take decisions during the race, rather than done after, which is maybe something to consider.

“I think what it would help is that if I knew the referees were always the same in every race. For me, I would know by pattern and by years of working with the same referees if they were going to judge that incident in that moment or not.

“When you work every race with different referees, it’s very difficult to know and understand when it’s coming or not.”

Presented with the financial argument against such a move, Sainz claimed that the key organisations in Formula 1 are in favour of reducing the number of rotating stewards, keeping at least two of the panel the same for the whole season.

“I don’t know the finance side of that,” he added, “but I think, as a group, F1, FIA, we all agree that should be the way forward – where at least two of the three stewards are permanent and we have one rotational for teaching purposes and sporting fairness purposes, to have always one rotational but two permanent.

“I think we shouldn’t care about who pays because there’s enough money in this sport to pay those salaries the same way that there’s enough money in the sport to pay the salaries of all the other people. So if that’s the right way forward, I cannot believe we’re talking about those salaries.”

He added that there is not 100 per cent buy-in on the idea, though, with others taking reasoning from others sports as to why rotational stewards may remain a good solution.

Asked if it is the case and people agree on the way forward, Sainz was asked why permanent stewards have not been put in place yet, to which he replied: “Because not everyone agrees, I think not everyone agrees the same way that they can use the argument of football.

“Why, in football we have different referees and no one complains, or other sports where you don’t have always the same referee and the sporting fairness.

“There could be a guy that, if he gets penalised two or three times, he will start blaming ‘it’s that steward that hates me’, so I understand where they come from, and those that defend not permanent stewards, I understand their point.

“I just have a very, very clear opinion on that. We have it with the race director [Rui Marques]. I’m really enjoying this new race director, the approach he has, and we’re starting to understand the kind of decisions that he’s going to take, and the relationship is growing thanks to working now for a year with him.

“I see him being in the sport for quite a long time, and we’re not changing race director every race, and I see the benefits that keeps with the sport, and the development with the drivers, and the development of the relationship with him.”

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