The FIA has released F1 driving standards and penalty guidelines that are available to the public, with a move aimed at improving decision-making transparency.
Stewards have worked on advisory documents for years, but because they have not been published, they have limited understanding of how each one applies to an incident. FIA President Mohamed Ben Slayem faced criticism during his tenure and failed to improve transparency within the governing body.
“Fia Stewards performs extremely complex tasks not only in Formula 1, but in every championship. They do this spontaneously, with great passion and commitment,” says Ben Sulayem. “That dedication often comes across extreme and completely unfair criticism.
“To demonstrate the rigour of pursuing their role, we are today publishing penalties and driving standards guidelines to help them make decisions, which gives media fans and members deeper and more accurate insight into how decisions will be made in Formula 1.
“Penalty Guidelines have been a core tool for almost a decade, and the Driving Standards Guidelines, introduced in 2022 and constantly updated, brought drivers’ most important voices to the table, creating a true reference to the situation in a particular race.”
The driving standards guidelines cover topics from attempts to pass straight and truck restrictions, but the penalty guidelines are 13 pages long, covering potential incidents for both driver and team-related, as well as punishment and associated penalty points recommended in different scenarios.
George Russell, director of the Grand Prix Driver Association, was also quoted from the FIA, looking at progress towards evaluating knowledge about how decisions are made.
“Improved transparency within our sport’s governance is an important issue, and this is a useful step in that direction,” Russell said. “Hopefully it will be beneficial to help the stewards understand the rules of engagement when the sport is on track with the media and fans and to help them understand how to get to their decisions.”
The release of the document came a day when Carlos Signes Sr. decided himself as he ran for presidency and called the current situation “not ideal,” but said, “I still believe that important changes are needed in the organization.” Carlos Sign, the son of his Williams F1 driver, refused to discuss whether the publication felt like a politically motivated move.
“As a driver, I don’t think there’s a secret that I’ve felt there’s a bit of a lack of transparency and understanding about the FIA’s main governance over the last few years,” Young Sign said. “And while the intentions may have been good at times, the way the FIA tried to do things was always within the best spirit, but I felt like the driver was always a bit left behind and sometimes our opinions weren’t heard enough.
“There were sometimes corrections and I felt there was a good response to those corrections, but there were obviously no one feeling that way, and we have made our statement very clear, but this year is certainly frustrating, so this year is certainly frustrating.
“For me, as long as I know that drivers, engineers and team members can go to the race, the reason why they made it public and make something is why they asked that question whether it was more politically relevant.
“But you can see that those steps, what is written in (the guidelines), have heard it in some way. Whether you publish it that way or not, I don’t know why, but what is written in the press release about the guidelines and so on is what we discussed with them.”
click here Display penalty guidelines
click here Displays standard operating guidelines
