The FIA ​​claims the new department will lead to “more professional” officials among the teams.

The FIA ​​says its new officials department will lead to a “more professional” governing body in the future amid unease from Formula 1 teams over steward consistency.

FIA last September Announced that it would introduce a new officer to the department To help the governing body train officials in all their sanctioned motor racing activities.

Headed by experienced Italian steward Matteo Perini, who was appointed Sports Officials Manager at the FIA, it has been commissioned to provide training to the next generation of officials and ensure that there is a great talent pool available to work with the FIA. There is a pool.

The FIA ​​recognizes that, against the backdrop of widespread criticism by F1 teams over the consistency of race stewards’ decisions in recent years, it is better off training as many race stewards, race directors and other officials as is desired. FIA President Mohammed Ben Suleim has also drawn criticism for his man management of the governing body.

long time steward Tim Meyer was removed Following disagreements with the President over the handling of the United States Grand Prix track invasion. Ahead of November’s Las Vegas Grand Prix Ben Suleim Personally dismissed F1 race director Nils WittichReplacing him with F2 and F3 director Rui Marques. Marques’s expected replacement, respected Singaporean official Janet Tan, Was dismissed even on short noticeLeaving Marques to handle a very busy schedule in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

Speaking exclusively to Autosport, FIA director of single-seater Nicolas Tombazis claimed the body’s new officials department ultimately led to a “more professional body” in the future rather than relying on volunteers to run races. The weekend away will provide more scope to analyze the cases. ,

Having more dedicated stewards available on a full-time or even part-time basis would mean more time to analyze and evaluate decisions made on race weekends, or expedite certain processes such as authorization of review requests.

“Maybe it’s being a little unfair for people to do it out of their good hearts, and that’s what we have now,” Tombazis told Autosport.

“We want to move to a more professional body in the future. This is not to exclude volunteers, but it is a body that can spend a Monday morning analyzing every single decision, making sure that It was approached correctly, seeing what could be improved, etc.

“This will be coupled with a more powerful remote centre, where there will be more surveillance for the range of crimes, and it will all be linked together. That is the common goal.

“Ultimately, (the official department) will bring a broader pool of people available to do it, and it will provide that they will have more time to spend on analyzing everything and so on. Just to be clear, it’s something Now we have a group that is very experienced and has been serving for 20 years.”

Last season McLaren and Red Bull particularly suffered from some of the handling of Lando Norris’ and Max Verstappen’s on-track battles in Austin and Mexico, leading to major wide-ranging Call Professionalize Stewarding,

Tombazis claimed analysis by the FIA ​​and some teams, including Aston Martin, showed F1’s stewarding decisions are generally more consistent than suggested, but said the governing body needed to ensure a steady supply of The number of officers in your pool should be increased. of the next generation of executives.

“There is already a High Performance Steward program and Race Director program, which have been running for a few years,” he explained.

“And there are about 30 people who have been selected from national sports authorities and sponsored by some people and helped through the program from different sectors.

“These guys move up the ladder and may eventually end up in Formula 1 or end up in rally or Formula E in the future. So, I think it’s going to be fine for many years.

“That said, there is also a feeling that this should go further. There should be a proper department that leads these cases.

“We think that in Formula 1 we get a lot of comments about the consistency of stewards. I hasten to add that analysis was also carried out by the teams, which has indicated that the stewards are very consistent indeed.

“However, they are people who certainly have a great level of expertise, but we don’t have as many of them as we would like available or trained.”

In recent times, Ben Sulem has come under further scrutiny after is doubling down on his quest to crack down on swearing and other sporting code violations,

The FIA ​​released an updated version of its sporting code on Wednesday, with new guidelines regarding driver misconduct.

Updated stewards penalty guidelines Formula 1 drivers could result in collecting a fine of up to 120,000 euros as well as a championship points deduction. and even suspension for infractions such as swearing and political or religious statements that violate the FIA’s neutrality principles.

World champion Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc were fined after swearing at press conferences last season, with Verstappen also fined. FIA in Rwanda ordered to begin community service,

Drivers Association GPDA in response Published an open letter, calling on the FIA ​​to treat drivers like adultsThe GPDA has yet to respond to this week’s updated stewards guidelines.