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Guenther Steiner has called on the FIA to finally employ permanent stewards after being left furious with a decision during the Monaco Grand Prix that dumbfounded the Haas team principal.
On lap one of Sunday’s race, Nico Hulkenberg dived down the inside of Williams’ Alex Albon into Mirabeau, only to be hit with a five-second time penalty and handed two penalty points on his super licence.
In its statement, the stewards mistakenly say the ‘collision’ was at Turn 6, the hairpin, and determine that as Hulkenberg was “unable to control the car and was not forced there by any other car”, it did not warrant “the benefit of the doubt of a first-lap incident”.
Steiner, however, has since reviewed footage and images yet he “cannot see a collision”.
“I’m told that collision is touching, that is what I’m told the definition is,” said Steiner. “I’m still trying to find out. I’m still arguing it.
“I think it’s completely wrong. It’s lap one, there was no collision, and it’s Monte Carlo.
“This has consequences – lap one, and we get a penalty for what I think is not a collision. There are other people running into each other during the race that get a black-and-white flag, so I think it’s very inconsistent.
“If a collision is because you attack somebody, and the other driver reacts to it, why would you get a penalty for that?
“When you try to overtake somebody, obviously you try to push somebody into making a mistake, so that would be illegal as well?
“I still don’t understand the decision. I have looked at numerous pictures and I cannot see a collision.
“How can you be sure of a collision? And if you don’t know if there is one or not, it is innocent until proven guilty, not guilty until proven innocent. That is how a law works, in my opinion.”
Steiner feels the FIA should now fall into line with other sports and bring on board full-time, professional stewards.
At present, there is a group of independent stewards who rotate between grands prix. A number are former racing drivers but the majority are sporting administrators.
It is a suggestion that has been mooted many times in the past which the FIA has consistently rejected.
In the past, there was a permanent body of stewards, however, accusations of bias were occasionally levelled against them.
Despite that, Steiner said: “Do we need a different system with the stewards because every professional sport has professional referees? F1 is one of the biggest sports in the world and we still have laymen deciding.
“It’s always a discussion because there’s no consistency. I don’t want to blame any particular person, but if you’re not all there all the time, and this is just like a job…it’s not even a job because in a job you can get sacked. If you do a bad job, you get sacked.
“We need to step it up. I think it’s now time. We’ve been discussing this for years and years and we always come back to this.
“In NASCAR and IndyCar, how many times do you hear of problems with the stewards or a race director’s decision? Very rarely.
“But they’re doing it completely differently. There are full-time people working there.”
As to whether he has recently spoken with the FIA on the matter, Steiner added; “Not recently because when you are told three times no…”
Albon felt the penalty against Hulkenberg was harsh. “I think it (the overtake) was quite okay,” he said. “I wouldn’t have called that a penalty.
“I don’t know with the FIA. We try to make it that the penalty is not based on the outcome. But more often than not it is. Let’s be realistic.
“It was definitely optimistic but he made it work. So probably a little bit harsh.”
