3 hours Ago By Sam Cooper
Mohammed Ben Sulayem said the FIA cannot afford to employ permanent stewards despite calls from drivers and inconsistent stewarding across the F1 2024 season. George Russell has been the most vocal driver asking for permanent stewards following a number of notable incidents but the FIA president said his organisation cannot afford it. Stewarding is a matter overseen by the FIA and it has come under increased focus following a series of controversial incidents made by the part-time officials who are paid a few hundred pounds a day for their services.
Russell, who is also a director of the drivers union, said permanent stewards who attend every F1 race should be looked into but Ben Sulayem claims the FIA does not have the money. “It’s very nice talk,” he told Motorsport.com .
“But when they say professional, and they want professional, they don’t want to pay for it. That is so obvious. “They talk and then they say: ‘Where are you putting the money? Why we don’t do this?’ But I don’t say, ‘Oh, sorry, what about you?’ The drivers are getting over $100million.
Do I ask where they spend it? No, it’s up to them. It’s their right. “So please, it’s not only me saying it is none of their business.
We do whatever we do with our money. It’s our business. It’s also [the same] with them and their money.
It’s their business.” FIA announces key rulebook change ahead of F1 2026 regulations sweep FIA release new renderings of the ‘refined version’ of the F1 2026 car concept The FIA will receive over $1 million alone from Max Verstappen in super licence fees next year but despite this, the FIA president says that FOM should be the ones paying. “But I don’t really sometimes understand.
It’s always about the FIA. ‘Why are we doing this? Why are we doing that?’ But did anyone go to FOM?” “I say it again and again – stewards do not grow on trees. It takes time to educate them.
It takes time to train them. And then you evolve them, so we have a programme. “I see the point about having them maybe like the Premier League where they [the referees] are paid.
But we don’t have the money to do that. “So we have to be also very careful of the way we are going. As long as they are committed, fair, and they are trained properly, then there will be stewards who come and go.
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