George Russell believes that it is better to switch back to the system with a single race director in Formula 1 because of lack of “accountability.”
Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas were appointed as F1 race directors for 2022. However, questions were raised throughout the season because of such set-up. Sebastian Vettel appeared to have been frustrated with officiating and left the drivers’ meeting on Friday without permission. As a result, the Aston Martin driver was given a suspended €25000 fine.
“I do agree that we need to stick with one race director. We need to have a bit more consistency with the stewarding,” Russell commented on the matter.
“We come to the following event and often the stewards from the previous event are not there. So there’s no accountability, no explanations of decisions and we ask questions and it’s difficult to get a straightforward answer because – I wouldn’t say the ‘blame’, but almost the blame – is being put on to somebody else who wasn’t there. So, yes, it’s tricky, everybody’s got their own interpretations.”
Russell also revealed that drivers were not happy with inconsistency of decisions.
“I think it’s incredibly difficult for the FIA, it’s very difficult for the drivers.
“There’s been a lot of borderline decisions or maneuvers this season, whether it’s defending, whether it’s track limits in a racing scenario like last week in Silverstone. We don’t want to be dishing out penalties left, right and center, but there needs to be an element of consistency somewhere and I think we need to look at the root cause of the issues.”
