McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has called on the FIA to deliver a comprehensive review of its regulations regarding on-track incidents, after last season’s championship fight was decided in controversial circumstances.
Speaking to Racer, Zak Brown spoke about the confusion of Abu Dhabi, saying:
“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 aren’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.”
Brown then compared two very similar incidents that had two very different outcomes.
The first incident he referred to was when his driver Lando Norris faced a wrath of the stewards after he was found guilty of pushing Sergio Perez off the track and into the gravel, during the Styrian Grand Prix.
Brown pointed out that this incident was very similar to the one between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in Brazil.
This incident saw both cars leave the track and onto the runoff area, but it received no sanction from the stewards.
Brown said: “If I pull back, I think there’s too much inconsistency in regulations and how they’re applied and when they’re applied, driver penalties. You look at Lando (Norris) who doesn’t touch (Sergio) Perez on the first lap in Austria, he tries him round the outside and he gets a five-second penalty and two penalty points. Then you have Max (Verstappen) and Lewis (Hamilton) who both go off track (in Brazil) and ‘Let them race’. I think we all have those stories, and it’s difficult when it’s subjective, but I think we need to take a step back.”
“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.”
Image Credit: @ZBrownCEO on Twitter.