Verstappen not entirely in agreement with Russell on race directors in 2022
Red Bull Content Pool
General
- GPblog.com
In mid-February, the FIA proudly presented its plans to make 'structural changes' to the rules that govern race series in Formula One. There was no place for Michael Masi anymore, but exactly halfway through the 2022 season, things don't seem to have improved much. Max Verstappen gives his verdict.
Consistency, in particular, had to improve, but that is precisely what is lacking again this year. Fernando Alonso has had several run-ins with the FIA over stewarding decisions and last weekend in Austria Sebastian Vettel was said to have stormed out of the Drivers Meeting. He would have expressed his dissatisfaction with the stewards Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas in a not-so-gentle manner. This earned him a suspended fine of €25,000.
Collaboration between drivers and stewards
Furthermore, George Russell said last weekend that it might be better for the premier class of motor racing to have one race director instead of two. In the press conference Verstappen says he does not entirely share this opinion. The reigning world champion wants to see better communication with the drivers.
" I don't think necessarily it depends on one race director, I think it's more about working with the drivers instead of just keeping your stance and just being stubborn", Verstappen said. "You know, we want to make it better for everyone and it's not like we're fighting for ourselves. We have good conversations between the drivers and at the end of the day, the more or less, on most things we agree."
The 24-year-old Dutchman cited track limits, for example. He feels that the penalties were too swift last weekend, because in Verstappen's view there is little to no gain by sometimes leaving the track for a short time. If the FIA really wants you to stay on the track with four tyres, they should put up more walls or gravel. It is also difficult for the stewards to enforce the track limits, because there are not sensors everywhere. This means that all twenty cars have to be monitored to see whether they leave the track illegally or not.
There's still room for improvement in F1
So in terms of track limits, Verstappen would like to see a few changes implemented, but that's not all. "These kind of things, I think it just doesn't look good for the sport as well and this is just one thing. Then the other thing is racing incidents and stuff. Yeah for sure we can do better. I think we will work on it we'll try to make it better." he concluded.