Two races. Loads of penalties. Everyone’s favourite scroll-platforms abound with existential questions about the position of an “apex” (nobody knows).
Instead of adding another opinion to whether the penalties are right / wrong:
🎖️ how can teams use this for performance (hint: speak to a specialist);
👽 something I've not seen mentioned: the driving standards guidelines (potentially) don't apply anyway; and
👨⚖️ ideas for Stewarding improvements.
🏆 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀?
Spend more time / cash on maximising performance under the Sporting Regulations.
This is common under the Technical / Financial Regulations. However, from my experience seeing other sports, F1 is far behind in maximising sporting advantage. And these penalties are just examples of Verstappen maximising the Regulations (whether people like it or not).
Don’t hate the player, hate the game…
🎃 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗼𝗳 “𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗮𝘄” 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲?
There’s been loads of talk about the FIA Driving Standards Guidelines. They are non-regulatory, not public, and not strictly enforceable.
The penalties themselves can be found in the Regulations, so are fine, but the interpretation being used by the Stewards’ decisions have no basis in Regulation, so are open to challenge.
If someone felt aggrieved and had lots of cash / time / willingness to anger people, then a “real” court challenge of these decisions would be very interesting.
💪 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱?
All people want is consistency. Unfortunately, someone's always going to be upset. People should be nicer to the Stewards.
1. 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 / 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲:
Rely on actual Regulations and not invented supplementary documents (eg the Guidelines).
Improve the drafting of the Regulations.
2. 𝗟𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆
The Guidelines aren’t public; all applicable rules should be public.
Release more detail on the hearings / decisions (eg such as football releasing VAR audio).
Add an ex-Steward pundit – Sky now have an (excellent) strategist so get someone to help explain this stuff to people (conversely, current Stewards should not be commenting in media…).
3. 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀
The FIA's new formal development pathway will hopefully improve training / consistency.
MotoGP unfortunately hasn’t seen huge improvements from the same (and F1 tried ages ago but flipped back).
⭐ 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀
Maximise the Sporting Regulations: untapped potential for performance
Nuclear option: use “real” court to challenge applicability of non-regulatory documents to official decisions
Right of review everything: hard to say what might happen
Be nice to Stewards…
(C) Grand Prix Photos