George Russell’s disbelief was unmistakable when he received a time penalty during the United States Grand Prix. The high-pitched tone of his radio message reflected his surprise at the ruling from Formula One race stewards, which came as he was making a strong charge through the field after starting from the pit lane.
The incident occurred at Turn 12, a wide left-hand corner at the end of the back straight, where side-by-side overtakes are common. Russell was overtaking Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas for 14th place, passing him on the inside of the corner. However, the stewards ruled that Russell hadn’t left Bottas enough room at the exit, forcing the Sauber off track.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, usually a reserved presence on team radio, weighed in immediately, calling the decision a “total joke.” Despite serving the penalty during a pit stop, Russell still managed to finish in sixth place. However, Mercedes remained frustrated, especially given the stewards’ handling of two other incidents involving Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.
In Formula 1, race stewards act as referees, deciding on-track disputes referred to them by the race director, Niels Wittich. For the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, the steward panel included former F1 driver Derek Warwick, Garry Connelly, a member of the FIA World Motor Sport Council, Loïc Bacquelaine, an F1 and F3 steward with a background in law, and Dennis Dean, a national steward.
The stewards made no ruling when Verstappen made an aggressive lunge down the inside of Norris at the start of the race, a move that upset the McLaren driver. However, later in the race, when Norris passed Verstappen off the track—while Verstappen was also off the track defending—Norris received a five-second penalty for breaching racing rules, leaving McLaren and their fans frustrated as well.
The contrasting decisions have reignited the debate over consistency in stewarding, with teams like Mercedes and McLaren feeling the impact of rulings that can shape a race’s outcome.
A big moment in the race and potentially the season 😮
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 20, 2024
Norris overtakes Verstappen but picks up a 5-second penalty for passing off track ✋#F1 #USGP pic.twitter.com/y1DFXGde0U
“Did Verstappen get a penalty for Turn 1?” Russell asked the Mercedes pit wall on the cool-down lap.
“No, he didn’t get a penalty,” Wolff replied. “And at the end, Lando got a penalty for being forced off and overtaking on the outside. I guess it’s a bit biased decision-making, but …”
Post-race, Wolff explained in a media session that he appreciated the stewards were “in a really difficult situation” to appease all the teams. But he felt a need to understand why they made certain decisions.
“We need to try and understand whether there’s certain patterns in stewarding decisions and whether that correlates to some of the situations,” Wolff said. “And everybody is racing hard, but for me, the decision against George was inexplicable.
“We’ve seen plenty of these situations in Turn 12. None of them were penalized until it (was) George, and obviously, there was another one afterwards. But (it wasn’t) the whole weekend, until (then) it was.”
Toto Wolff chose not to weigh in on the incident between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, leaving any comments on that matter to McLaren’s team leadership.
The stewards’ decisions on such penalties are guided by the Driving Standards Guidelines, a set of racing rules established by the FIA. These guidelines dictate proper racing etiquette, such as when to leave space and which driver has the right to a particular line through a corner. While these guidelines are not publicly available or part of the official regulations, they serve as a tool for regulating on-track behavior and ensuring fair competition during races.
The fact these guidelines stated that Norris had lost his ‘right’ to Turn 12 when fighting Verstappen meant he received a penalty for overtaking off the circuit, which is a breach of the sporting regulations. After the race, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner called it a “black and white” penalty.
Referring to the Turn 1 incident with Verstappen, Norris noted that greater leeway is often given to incidents that happen on the opening lap due to the proximity of the cars. “The fact that he committed so much speed that he again went off the track … I mean. I can’t just dive up the inside of someone, run off, and then keep the position in normal running,” Norris said. “But for some reason, it’s completely OK in Lap 1 on Turn 1. It’s a tough one. I don’t know.”
Norris and Verstappen raced each other hard on Sunday. (SIPA USA)
In the case of Russell and Bottas, because Russell was overtaking on the inside — not defending on the inside like Verstappen — the stewards referred to the guidelines, stating that “when overtaking on the inside, the driver must not force the other car off the track and must leave a fair and acceptable width for the car being overtaken.”
“By the letter of the law, my penalty was correct, but anybody who knows, anybody watching it, knows it was not correct,” Russell said after the race. “So I don’t really know how we move forward.
“I think we’d probably all want to see probably the same stewards all year long so that the drivers and the stewards can all be on the same page and that we can apply common sense when needed rather than having to really follow the letter of the law.”
Russell’s suggestion of a permanent set of stewards to provide greater consistency has regularly been raised by drivers. The counter-argument has been that using a rotating group of stewards ensures fairness and stops any accusations of bias, as was the case when F1 last operated a permanent system in the mid-2000s, meaning there has never been consensus on having a full-time panel.
“I think there’s great stewards,” Wolff said. “Honestly, great stewards that have either been in a racing car or have a non-biased view on situations, doing the best of their abilities for a job that is truly difficult. And we mustn’t put everybody in the same category.
“There’s a few inconsistencies, but I’m sure the (FIA) president is going to look at that.”
A factor that Norris questioned after the race was the timing of the decision to penalize him. Instead of taking a decision post-race, giving a chance for him and Verstappen to explain their sides of the battle, the stewards issued the ruling on the final lap. The penalty was taken during the race, so it could not be appealed.
“I am surprised that the stewards didn’t even feel the need to discuss with the drivers after the race,” said McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. “It is an uncertain situation. Get the opinion of the drivers, get the time to assess the situation with the level of details that is required when the situation is not so clear.
“So where is the urgency to interfere with the result of a race, with a championship course, just because you have to make the decision in 60 seconds? It’s a question mark that I think the stewards should take constructively, positively. Is it really needed to make a decision so quickly and, in our opinion, so wrongly?”
There is general agreement among F1 teams that improvements can always be made to stewarding and the clarity of racing rules. However, the difficulty lies in applying those rules to situations that are inherently varied and unique.
Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz both pointed to Oscar Piastri’s penalty during the sprint race—where he was judged to have forced Pierre Gasly off the track after overtaking him—as an example of a decision they felt was too harsh. They indicated that it would likely be a topic of discussion at the next drivers’ briefing in Mexico.
“I had a very similar incident yesterday (in the sprint) in Max’s position, and I was the one who got a penalty,” Piastri said on F1 TV after the race. “I’m sure we’ll have some questions about that.”
Or, a natural solution: “The easiest thing would be to put gravel there, and no one is going to go off.”
Top photos of Lando Norris and George Russell: Mark Sutton/Getty Images, Kym Illman/Getty Images
