Criticism of the stewards has been abundant in recent years. Inconsistency is an especially important point for drivers and teams, so they regularly call for the appointment of fixed stewards. According to F1’s deputy race director Claire Dubbelman, this is deliberately not the case.
“They deliberately moved away from that. Purely because certain teams and drivers were convinced that if one person doesn’t like you, it will impact the entire season. That’s why we have the current system, where we rotate with the stewards,” said Dubbelman, speaking on the Dutch Formule1 podcast.
“This way, every F1 steward knows what has been decided, why it was decided that way, and how we would do it again in the next situation. Ultimately, most Formula 1 teams admit that we are much more consistent than they accuse us of.”
The media is not well informed about the rules
Dubbelman states that the most difficult part of her work is making decisions without having all the information. Yet, there is still murmuring, even from the media. She often takes it with a grain of salt. “Often, the media is not aware of the latest regulations. Then I think ‘well, just do your homework, then we would have had a very different discussion.'”
