These are the stewards F1 deserves, but not the ones it needs

While we await Pirelli’s report on the issues that overshadowed the Belgian Grand Prix, the drivers continue to complain about the tyres, keeping Formula One in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Rather than finding that Sebastian Vettel’s tyre perished after running a long stint that stretched his rubber to the limits, I suspect that the culprit will be shown to be a failure to obey track limits, a scenario that will make the driver and, more importantly, the stewards look like fools.

And it’s long overdue.

Vettel doth protest too much insisting post-race that Ferrari’s strategy was not risky. and when he and Nico Rosberg say they didn’t leave the track that it should be believed.

Unfortunately for him the video evidence is conclusive: he left the track numerous times and fairly consistently throughout the race.

Occasionally the stewards will rule that drivers can exceed the track limits – i.e. position their car so that all four wheels are beyond the white lines on the edge of the track – when it is deemed that they will not gain an advantage if they do so.

This is a reductive argument because if the drivers didn’t gain any advantage then they simply wouldn’t do it. In fact, they’d probably be fired for not driving in the optimal way.

It means, for whatever reason, the stewards have been told to look the other way when these breaches occur. This is far more believable in this rebuilding era in which Formula One is trying to address its shrinking viewership and reputation for pedestrian racing.

Social media lit up during the Belgian Grand Prix following a gutsy overtake from Max Verstappen on Felipe Nasr that was drawn out across a number of corners. I was sceptical that the pass was made within the rules, as Verstappen completely left the track only moments before making the overtake and gained both a speed and track position advantage by doing so.

A blog post from respected commentator Will Buxton made a similar argument that has since gained traction among figures in the Formula One media.

Verstappen’s overtake was one of the few moves during the race that was unassisted by DRS and featured prominently in the television coverage, so there’s really no excuse for the stewards missing it.

This isn’t to single out Verstappen, or Vettel for that matter. Nearly every driver regularly left the track to gain some kind of advantage during the race, which means either the stewards weren’t doing their job or were told to let it slide.

So which is it? Here’s a transcript of a message relayed to Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat on lap 40 (of 45) by race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase:

“So official warnings at turn four, Dani, OK. So just watch the track limits.”

It’s farcical that only Kvyat would get a warning, and in the final moments of the race, when it was a problem for all drivers the entire race.

In the recent British Grand Prix, especially during qualifying, drivers were having their times dropped left, right and centre until some control was finally established. Apparently a very different view was taken in Belgium, and this isn’t an isolated incident. Little by little adherence to the regulations has been eroding like a disintegrating coral reef or Pastor Maldonado’s hairline.

Stewarding a sport as vastly technical as Formula One in a manner that appeases the teams, drivers, sponsors and (more importantly) the fans is a tough ask, and getting the balance right is seemingly impossible. Yet letting infringements go without following due process is a recipe for disaster.

If the argument was made that regulations are sometimes bypassed for the good of the sport (and even if that were true, who makes that call?), then there are plenty of recent examples where the contrary has been true.

Think of the PR nightmare that errupted when Daniel Ricciardo was stripped of his P2 finish at the Australian Grand Prix last year, the mockery of giving McLaren penalties that total in excess of over 100 grid places, and my personal pet peeve, cars being released in the pitlane and driving side-by-side down it.

In the old days Formula One stewards consisted of anyone with a working knowledge of the regulations who happened to be at the track. In more recent times a stewarding panel was established which is bolstered with a rotating list of former drivers, presumably to demonstrate some empathy for the drivers.

With some regular stewards the decisions have become somewhat more consistent, however it’s more accurate to say the decisions coming from the stewards have become consistently biased.

After the British Grand Prix, driver/steward Nigel Mansel answered questions on BBC Radio when the question of Mercedes trying to pull a ‘dummy pitstop’ (a feigned pistop where the engineers enter the pitlane to try to force other teams into pitting their cars) was posed. At first Mansell pretended that his memory was failing him, but when pressed on the issue he responded, “We actually saw that but we are powerless unless it gets reported to us.”

Article 23.11 of Formula One’s Sporting Regulations reads as follows: “Team personnel are only allowed in the pit lane immediately before they are required to work on a car and must withdraw as soon as the work is complete.”

You’ll notice that nowhere in the regulations does it say that a penalty shall only be given if another competitor makes a complaint. No harm, no foul seems to be the only rule that matters.

It became a talking point among the press, with Mercedes executive Toto Wolff even pointing out that his wife, Williams reserve driver Susie Wolff, had messaged him about the move saying, “You guys think you can fool us, hah, hah, hah,” and the FIA warned the teams that if it happened again there would be disciplinary consequences.

But it’s far too little far too late.

Quite unbelievably, despite failing to finish the race and finishing outside the points, Vettel was summoned to the weigh-bridge at the conclusion of the Belgian Grand Prix, a request that he understandably disregarded.

I understand that the matter was reported to the stewards for their consideration, although I suspect they decided to let it go lest he tear them a new one as well.