George Russell demands major F1 change and tells FIA to ‘stick their hand in their pocket’ | F1 | Sport

George Russell has told the FIA to “stick their hand in their pocket” and pay a premium for full-time, employed stewards for Formula One races. The Mercedes racer has expressed his frustration with a string of controversial penalty decisions in recent months.

The Brit was vocal in his criticism of the decision to penalise only former team-mate Lewis Hamilton on a chaotic opening lap at the Mexican Grand Prix in October, while a 10-second penalty for Oscar Piastri in Brazil following contact with Kimi Antonelli sparked widespread debate in the paddock.

Ahead of the race in Qatar, Russell was asked about comments from Williams’ Carlos Sainz, who praised the analysis carried out by Sky Sports F1 and F1 TV pundits. The Madrid-born racer suggested that the FIA should consider adding drivers with recent F1 experience to stewarding panels and use common sense rather than the current racing guidelines.

“Yeah, well, I respect those three that he mentioned from an analysis perspective, and I think they do get things absolutely spot on,” Russell replied. “The benefit they have, versus the stewards, is they’ve got one, no pressure, and two, they’ve got time on their hands not to make a decision there in the moment, and three, they’re not following guidelines.

“They’re following their own view of their racing experience and knowledge, which, for what it’s worth, I think the stewards have, but their job isn’t to make a decision based upon their view. In racing knowledge, their job is to make a decision based upon the guidelines. That means the guidelines need to be correct. If the guidelines aren’t correct, the decisions won’t be correct.

“But you can’t have a guideline for every circumstance. So it goes back to this point where I think consistent stewarding from individuals who’ve got that racing experience, who can see an incident for what it is, is where we will get the most consistent penalties for a given incident. And that’s where the likes of Anthony [Davidson], Jolyon [Palmer] and Karun [Chandhok] have that benefit.”

Russell went on to demand a permanent solution for the ongoing debate around penalty application and F1 stewarding. “I don’t think we need to get necessarily those specific three, but I do think those three would be great,” he continued.

“But somebody’s got to stick their hand in their pocket to pay the stewards the correct amount. It would be to have consistent stewarding over the course of 24 races. At the end of the day, it’s a job.

“These people… It’s a multibillion-dollar sport. We shouldn’t be having volunteers having such great power in certain roles. So somebody’s got to pay for these people, in my eyes.”