F1 News
Brown sees the need for new steward system: 'Happy to pay for it'
- Sandy van Wijngaarden
News broke on Wednesday that controversial steward Johnny Herbert will no longer serve as a part of the FIA for the new F1 season. On the same day that news came out, Zak Brown announced that he would like to see a completely different system for stewards, saying that McLaren would be keen to contribute to that.
Former F1 driver and Sky Sports UK pundit Herbert had worked as a steward throughout the 2024 F1 season. However, before the 2025 season got underway, the FIA announced that he would no longer be working for them due to his conflicting media work, with the Brit regularly giving interviews to gambling websites.
At the Autosport Business Exchange in London, Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren, expressed his dissatisfaction with the current steward system. For instance, Brown prefers stewards who do the whole season and are paid well.
Brown would like to see a different steward system
Indeed, at the moment, the job as a steward is mostly voluntary and comes with a small compensation in return, with stewards also changing every race weekend. Therefore, Brown is more than willing to help pay for new stewards with money from McLaren. Ideally, he would like to see the other F1 teams help pay as well. "As far as paying for the stewards, this will probably be unpopular amongst my fellow teams. I'd be happy if McLaren and all the racing teams contribute. It's so important for the sport. It can't be that expensive if everybody contributes. It's not going to break the bank."
For this change, Brown is certainly willing to pay. "What I don’t know is what’s the relationship contractually between the FIA and Formula 1 as far as what's the level of expectations on stewarding. But at the end of the day, the agreement says part-time stewarding is not paid. In any business, if you want something different, it's called a change order and if you want to change something, you have to pay for it," said the McLaren CEO.
This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy
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