McLaren wants teams to take a step back in the rule-making process

McLaren CEO Zak Brown wants the FIA to prevent teams from interfering in F1’s rule-making process. Brown believes teams have a lot of influence over the sport’s regulations and says it will lead to confusion, such as at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The American was speaking about the controversy surrounding race control’s decisions at the season finale in Abu Dhabi, during an interview with RACER magazine. Speaking about subsequent calls for a review of sporting regulations, Brown said:

“There were enough people disgruntled throughout the year that we need to look at the rules. And keep in mind that it’s the teams who make most of these rules. So, as you’ve heard me bang on about, I’d continue to like to see less influence from the teams, because we’re the ones who developed half of these rules.”

Contrasting the different outcomes faced by Lando Norris in Austria and Max Verstappen in Brazil for similar incidents, Brown says that F1’s sporting regulations have become subjective and prone to interpretation.

In Austria, Lando Norris was given a 5-second penalty for forcing Sergio Perez into the gravel, despite there being no contact between the two. The incident was generally considered a “racing incident” where Norris was just defending hard against a faster car.

Meanwhile, Max Verstappen escaped punishment in Brazil late in the season for a similar incident. He ran himself and a charging Lewis Hamilton off the track, in an apparent attempt to maintain his lead in the race. The stewards, in this case, refused to even investigate the incident, to the fury of many fans.

Brown believes teams shouldn’t be making the rules, but rather “take a step back” as their views are inherently subjective and biased towards outcomes that benefit themselves.

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McLaren wants FIA to review “confusing” regulations in off-season

Zak Brown has called for the FIA to utilize the off-season in reviewing sporting regulations. He called on the sporting body to ensure that the Abu Dhabi debacle is not repeated in the future.

In a post-season interview with RACER, Brown said:

“I think everyone was pretty confused. Obviously, there were winners and losers in it. It’s tough being a referee in any sport because half of the fans are going to agree with your call, half of them won’t. It seemed to deviate from what's happened in the past.”

“I think if you look to Baku, they red-flagged it right away. It didn’t really change the outcome for us, but I think in the off-season we need to review a lot of our regulations.”

Furthermore, Brown said he is in support of F1’s decision to stop team principals from being able to communicate directly with the race director.

The 50-year-old McLaren exec believes that the prospect of such communications being broadcast live has led to some team principals doing things they otherwise wouldn’t have because the “camera’s on them”. He said communications should be strictly behind the scenes and limited to team managers and race control.