What do the drivers really think of the newly-published FIA guidelines?

The FIA’s publishing of the racing guidelines, which help shape the stewards’ decisions, was a major topic for the drivers on Thursday.

On Thursday morning in Austria, the FIA made public the racing guidelines which the stewards use to help inform their decisions, as well as outlining the offences that earn drivers penalty points.

F1 drivers react to the publishing of FIA racing guidelines

While the guidelines outline no change in the expectation of the drivers compared to what has been in place for the first 10 race weekends of the year, the publishing of them offers a level of transparency to the general public that was not previously available.

Several drivers, including Esteban Ocon and George Russell, were unaware that the public did not have access to the information already, but the general consensus was that the idea of offering this transparency could only be a good thing; that’s even if the guidelines, which were revised for this year, have been met with a more mixed bag of opinions.

“Obviously, this is maybe more transparency for you, but for us, it doesn’t really change anything,” said Mercedes driver and GPDA director George Russell.

“I think it is positive that you have those papers to understand what they are working towards. I think we’ll have to see in due course. There have obviously been some small changes in the last couple of months, positively.”

“I think there’s no secret that, as drivers, we’ve felt over the last few years that there’s been a bit of a lack of transparency and a lack of understanding with the main governance of the FIA, and even though the intentions might have been good sometimes, I felt like drivers have been always a bit left out, and sometimes our opinions were not listened to enough,” Carlos Sainz said on Thursday.

“There have been corrections, and we felt like there has been a good reaction to those corrections. But clearly, other times, we haven’t felt that way, and we’ve made it very clear with our statements.

“But I can only see a way forward and getting better, because this year has certainly been frustrating for the most part. So let’s see if it improves, and maybe today’s press release from the FIA is already a sign of the intentions of making everything a bit clearer.”

While the publishing of the guidelines was the true story of the day, many of the drivers instead offered their opinions on the contents of the guidelines, ie. the driving standards expected of them this year.

They have changed nothing for the veterans of the sport, with Fernando Alonso saying that, “I’m still driving, more or less, the same way I always drove. And yes, it’s regulated, sometimes differently, from season to season.

“There are always some tweaks and adjustments, but we know the rules more or less when we start the season and you try to exploit them when you have a possibility. But no, I don’t think it changed much in the last two decades.

“If there is a contact or there is something happening, then you have to have a rule book that someone from outside the car can judge and make a decision.

“When I’m in the car and I’m defending, I’m defending the same way that I did all my career. And when I’m attacking, I do it in the same way.

“I’m not thinking that, on this page, it says that, you know, this thing into Turn 4….[for example], I will go for it, I try to overtake and not have any contact because my car can be damaged and score no points.

Seven-time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton was singing from the same hymn sheet, as he said, “I’m not driving to these guidelines, if I’m really honest, I’m just driving what I feel naturally. But, of course, the FIA stewards have a tough job. Every racing manoeuvre looks different.

“I think having some sort of boundary is good. I’ve not really had any problems in terms of they’ve not affected me so far.

“Different people come in, and different people come up with different things, year on year, and some of them are good. Some of them are not so good. I don’t want to judge it just yet.”

Four-time F1 World Champion Max Verstappen opted against speaking about the topic when asked in the FIA press conference, stating that he “hadn’t seen anything, I’ve been busy.”

Speaking in the FIA press conference, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly said, “To me, it’s clear on how hard you can race and the limit of it.

“Obviously, as drivers, you always take it right up to the limit and try to use any grey area that you can. But I think step by step, we’re reducing these grey areas. And I think it’s, at least to me, it’s very clear on what you can do and can’t do.”

Haas’ Esteban Ocon said, “I think that’s a very good thing that it’s transparent for everyone.”

F1 racing guidelines ‘difficult to remember in the heat of the moment’

Haas’ Ollie Bearman was one of the voices of dissent, revealing that he believes the outlining of prescriptive racing standards can force drivers into second-guessing their own racing instincts.

“This stuff sometimes feels a bit unnatural,” he said.

“Sometimes we have circuits where, if you try to go on the outside and there’s gravel on the exit, you don’t try to go on the outside. We go back to karting and stuff like this, and it worked.

“Sometimes having all of these prescriptions for everything can be a bit… not unhealthy, but a bit difficult to remember in the heat of the moment.

“Because often when you’re racing side by side, you have a split second to make the decision, and you don’t have time to remember the five-page document that you were sent in January.

“So it’s difficult, but I think the FIA is doing a good thing for the sport, trying to create some consistency. So I think there’s just a bit of continued collaboration.”

It was an opinion shared by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who commented along similar lines, “I think there was a time when it was pretty simple, like, just leave a car’s width and some space. We figured it out from there. Now it’s become quite the science. It’s become really complex.

“It was fair. It was simple inside the cockpit to just make those calculations. That worked for a long time. It’s gotten very complex.

“There’s a bit of you have to think about where your wheel is with the mirror and that kind of stuff. So it’s just where it’s gone. It’s how it’s developed.”

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc could see both sides of the topic, outlining how the transparency of the guidelines is welcome, but that it’s unlikely that every possible scenario could ever be covered off.

“I think it’s very, very difficult. As drivers, very often, we are not happy just because it’s the way it is,” he said.

“You won’t have any rules that are really very specific to every situation you find. So I think it’s a very difficult job in general. There will always be some situations that are not exactly written in black and white in the paper.

“Eventually, you need to make a decision, and it will be up to the stewards to do the right one. We’ve got to fully trust them.

“So I appreciate the transparency thing. I still think that it probably won’t always be very clear, but I think that’s the nature of the sport, and we’ve got to understand that.”

Championship leader Oscar Piastri was of a similar mind, saying, “I think the first important thing to point out is that they are guidelines. They’re not set-in-stone rules.

“Trying to put in words every single racing scenario is impossible. So, it’s a very difficult job. I think these guidelines provide the Stewards with some guidelines on what should be acceptable and what’s not.

“Obviously, there are still degrees of factors that can’t really be written down. Every situation is different, but I think it at least gives us as drivers some clarity on what is and isn’t allowed.

“here have probably been some tweaks since they came out—I can’t remember when they came out exactly, but maybe in the last 18 months or so.

“It’s just important that people don’t treat them as black and white—this is what needs to happen, this is what isn’t going to happen—because even if you wrote 10 pages of lines and a driver’s going to find a grey area just from the situation you end up in.

“So I think it’s important to recognise that and not jump to conclusions like, “it says this in this sentence, so this is what should happen.” It’s still in the stewards’ hands.”

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