Red Bull expect new FIA president to bring more “clarity” to F1 rules

Red Bull special advisor Helmut Marko says his team wants more clarity in regard to F1’s sporting regulations. Marko added that he expects that the new FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem to take appropriate actions to “fix the situation” ahead of the 2022 season.

Speaking of inconsistencies in stewarding decisions across last season during an interview with ServusTV, Marko said:

"There is no consistency to be seen in the decisions and therefore we get the feeling that it all looks random. The rules need to be more precise, but the stewards also need to express themselves more clearly and make better decisions."

He added:

"We have a new FIA President, and what I have heard from him so far sounds good. He wants to innovate, and I think we should think about the motto that Niki Lauda came up with: 'Let them race'. That has to be the starting point."

Marko feels that teams need to know the exact consequences of a particular violation and should be left “guessing”. Furthermore, the Austrian feels that each infraction should carry a set penalty. He feels that the stewards shouldn’t have to “choose” between penalties during race weekends.

The 2021 season whipped up major controversies surrounding the stewards' decisions over several on-track incidents between drivers. It even included the title protagonists Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen's final race.

The controversies mostly revolved around whether drivers needed to be allowed more leeway to race each other hard. During some of the early races, drivers were punished for what was considered “hard but fair” racing.

Meanwhile, during the latter part of the season, many drivers, including Verstappen and Hamilton, got off the hook for penalty-worthy infractions.

As the championship battle heated during the final few races, the controversy surrounding the stewards boiled over. Many asked for permanent stewards to be present in every single race, rather than a rotating group.

During the season finale at Abu Dhabi, the race director’s controversial decision” to create a last-lap shoot-out further inflamed some sections of the F1 community. In the immediate aftermath of the race, Mercedes demanded clearer rules that leave no space for “interpretation”.

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Red Bull agrees with F1’s decision to stop team principals from directly communicating with the race director during a Grand Prix

Helmut Marko agrees with F1’s decision to stop direct communications between team principals and the race director during Grand Prix weekends from 2022.

In an interview with ServusTV, the Red Bull team principal said:

"The Race Director should not have anyone nagging at his head and a decision should be made without anyone being able to influence the decision. Then I believe that all the incidents, which mainly affected us at Red Bull, but also other teams like Mercedes, can be avoided."

Mercedes and Red Bull team principals Toto Wolff and Christian Horner were both shown to be speaking to the race director on multiple occasions last season.

Since the Race Director usually “only has seconds” to take decisions, Marko believes that team principals can “influence” decisions with their interference. The Austrian believes that the Race director should be “free to decide” and that only team managers should be allowed to communicate with him.