Brundle makes FIA meeting ‘walk out’ claim as Piastri and Russell respond

All 20 Formula 1 drivers met with the FIA stewards in Qatar for an important annual ‘Driving Standards Review’ meeting. According to Martin Brundle, not every driver found it to be a worthwhile experience.

Brundle, the former racer turned Sky F1 commentator and pundit, said he had “spoke to one or two people who thought about walking out” of the meeting. Oscar Piastri and George Russell were not among those alleged unimpressed drivers, as both called the meeting “very productive”. With the driving standards guidelines a key topic, the FIA clarified that situation.

Martin Brundle drops FIA meeting ‘walk out’ claim

There has been some rumblings of driver discontent when it comes to the applications of penalties in F1 2025. A key example discussed in the Qatar meeting with governing body the FIA was Oscar Piastri’s 10-second penalty from Brazil, a verdict which Grand Prix Drivers’ Association [GPDA] director Carlos Sainz had branded “unacceptable”.

The Racing Guidelines document exists to offer drivers an insight into how the FIA stewards would look upon matters including overtaking and on-track conduct. There are concerns that these guidelines have led to drivers at times looking to game the system, and unfair penalties being issued.

Following the meeting, the FIA released a statement, as part of which they referred to the guidelines as “a living document”, while it was “reiterated” that they “are guidelines, not regulations”.

“Data from the past three seasons shows that the DSGs have contributed to greater consistency in stewarding decisions, supported by detailed analysis provided by teams,” the FIA added.

Brundle claimed to have spoken with “one or two people” who were not seeing great value in the meeting, and thought about “walking out” of it.

As Sky F1 lead commentator David Croft suggested that there “is still room for improvement”, Brundle responded: “Yeah, I think there always will be with refereeing.

“In the end, it’s subjective. It’s a matter of opinion on a lot of these things.

“I think the stewards do, fundamentally, a good job in a very challenging and pressurised situation where they’ve got to make a decision in the next few laps, and certainly before the end of the Grand Prix, so fans, ideally, can go home knowing what the result is.

“If there’s a technical infringement like we saw last weekend [with McLaren in Las Vegas], well, there’s nothing you can do much about that, because you can’t exactly measure the floor of a car halfway through a grand prix.

“I spoke to one or two people who thought about walking out of that meeting last night. Weren’t happy about it. Just thought it was a bit of a waste of time.

“But, if you ask 20 drivers an opinion, you’ll get 20 different opinions, and that was exactly the same when I was a driver.”

Championship hopeful Oscar Piastri clearly was not one of those drivers.

“I think it was very productive,” he said of the meeting.

“I think it’s good to always give our direct feedback to the stewards. I think [it was] tidying up a few things.

“I think generally things have been pretty good. Whenever you try and put any kind of guidelines or wording around going racing, there’s always going to be gaps somewhere. It’s impossible to cover everything. So, I think just some ideas and opinions on how we can close some of those gaps was good. So yeah, I thought it was productive.”

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Mercedes’ George Russell, a fellow GPDA director alongside Sainz, was singing from the same hymn sheet.

“Yeah, definitely productive,” he agreed with Piastri.

“I think from the incidents that were shown, all of the drivers agreed what the penalty either should have been or lack of penalty. And yeah, like Oscar said, the general consensus in the room is: if you put these guidelines in place, they absolutely have to be guidelines. Every track is different. Every overtake is different. Every circumstance is different.

“Sometimes you’ve got to use that racing knowledge that, as drivers, we’ve all accumulated over 20, 30, 40 years of our life. And the stewards – the driving standards stewards – sometimes have to judge it based on the common sense of racing, as opposed to exactly what a guideline says.

“Otherwise, you may as well have a lawyer dishing out the penalties.

“So yeah, hopefully we can migrate more in this direction.”

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