Top FIA steward reveals outcome of breakthrough meeting about driver guidelines

F1’s racing guidelines will not be revised until the 2025 season despite a breakthrough meeting with drivers at the Qatar Grand Prix.

The drivers attended a meeting with the FIA’s stewards on Thursday evening in Qatar to thrash out talks about changing F1’s racing guidelines, which have been under the microscope following several controversial incidents involving Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.

Grand Prix Drivers’ Association director George Russell said after the meeting that he hoped some alterations, specifically relating to the wording around attacking moves on inside lines, would be implemented as early as this weekend.

However, these changes will now not be made until next season, despite a driver meeting that the chairman of the FIA stewards Garry Connelly described as being “the most productive” ever.

“The drivers were fantastic with their input. Very constructive. There was not one negative comment. There was no finger-pointing,” Connelly said.

“It was very inspiring to see the world's best drivers, communicating clearly and speaking constructively on how we can improve the Driving Standard Guidelines to the benefit of the drivers and to make all of our jobs easier.

“As Stewards, we are not here to inflict pain on drivers. We're here to provide a level playing field. It's not us against the drivers, it's the drivers against the drivers and we're here to make sure everyone gets a fair go.

“We have an open-door policy. The door to the Stewards’ room is always open to any driver who wants to come up and talk to us about a decision that's been taken either in relation to them or in relation to any other driver. We think Thursday’s meeting emphasised that open-door policy.

“The Driving Standard Guidelines are a living document, so every year, as the F1 Stewards we try to meet with the drivers, sporting directors and FIA representatives, to see if we need to tweak the guidelines to use the experience of the last 12 months and see what improvements we can make to ensure consistency. The goal of the guidelines is consistency.

“As Stewards, if drivers and teams and the FIA agree that they want rules or guidelines to allow more aggressive driving, we'll apply those rules or guidelines. Likewise, if they want stricter driving standards, we'll apply those.”

FIA single seater sporting director Tim Malyon added: “We've had some very constructive driver meetings at the last few races, and this was a specific meeting set up to provide the space for that dialogue to continue, so that we can have the open exchange that we need with the drivers in order to be able to evolve the guidelines for next year.”

Both Russell and Verstappen agreed that circuit designs are the “root” cause of many of F1’s overtaking controversies, with both calling for changes to be made.

Malyon said the FIA will continue to work with circuits to make improvements after taking driver feedback onboard.

“What that meeting highlighted is that there are a number of considerations on the sporting side, which we can prioritise for circuits going forward,” Malyon continued.

“As we have done this year, we introduced the gravel traps, starting in Austria, and obviously, with this weekend being perhaps the most obvious with gravel traps added in a in a number of places.

"We continue to work with circuits on all topics, but it was very useful in yesterday’s meeting to get the insight of the drivers and see how they prioritise the gravel track concept, not only for track limits, but also for managing some of the situations that have arisen with overtaking during the course of the last four or five races.

“In all, there was a commitment to work together to find solutions that work for everyone.”