Stewards missed the mark: A referee doesn't show half a yellow card

"As stewards, we are not there to annoy drivers. We are there to create a level playing field. It is not us against the drivers; it is the drivers against the drivers, and we are there to make sure everyone gets a fair chance."

This was a quote from Garry Connelly, the FIA's chief steward, in a statement sent to the media this weekend. The words are nice following the stewards' "constructive" meeting with F1 drivers. But it was the same Connolly and his colleagues on duty in Qatar who once again interfered with the outcome of a session, causing much irritation to the constant 'victim' Max Verstappen and many F1 fans.

The sentiment is not in the FIA's favour

Of course, social media platform X is anything but representative of the opinion of 'the man in the street'. Nevertheless, the messaging platform is an excellent gauge of the mood after yet another steward's influence on a result. The words incomprehension and anger best describe the general trend. Fans have seen a wonderful qualifying session, but the stewards decide which driver starts from which position.

That the stewards would have targeted Verstappen with a British bias, let's leave that aside for the moment. The absurdity of this penalty should worry any F1 fan - Dutch or not -. The main problem is again the utter arbitrariness in handing out the penalty and its level. Indeed, a new penalty has been devised especially for Verstappen: a one-place grid penalty unique in the sport.

Verstappen had driven 'unnecessarily slow'

First of all, back to Saturday night in Qatar. As the paddock emptied, Verstappen was called to the stewards for allegedly 'driving unnecessarily slowly', according to the stewards' document. That is a minor offence ordinarily punishable by a warning. Zhou Guanyu experienced that a few hours earlier. He was indeed reprimanded for driving unnecessarily slowly.

But here's the thing: Verstappen was penalised because George Russell had to do an evasive manoeuvre on Verstappen on a warm-up lap, which was precisely to drive slowly to not cause problems for the drivers in front of him. Russell was not on a fast lap and was not disadvantaged. Just as Zhou did not disadvantage anyone. Yet Verstappen got a penalty, and Zhou did not.

Remarkable level of penalty

It is remarkable because suddenly, the original charge against Verstappen was apparently not driving too slowly but hindering Russell. The next anomaly is that it also resulted in a grid penalty of one place instead of the usual three (for obstructing an opponent). When you punish, you punish by the book. It should not matter whether Russell was hindered on a fast or slow lap; hindering is hindering.

But it became one place backwards on the starting grid of the Qatar Grand Prix. Compare it to a half-yellow card a referee in football would give after a foul. No one would understand half a penalty card being thrown. The penalty for Verstappen is also hard to explain. The last thing the FIA should want is for this kind of thing to reduce the interest of Verstappen and, certainly, for fans in the sport. After all, who wants a sport that is influenced by the whims of the stewards?

This article was translated by Savannah Lenz.