FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has brutally told George Russell to mind his own business over calls for full-time Formula One stewards. The 63-year-old says the FIA cannot afford to give their volunteer stewards salaries and even suggested that Formula One Management (FOM) should stump up the cash.
Mercedes driver Russell has called for full-time referees to oversee races after a series of controversies this season. However, Ben Sulayem has shut down any prospect of that happening.
“It’s very nice talk but when they say professional, and they want professional, they don’t want to pay for it. That is so obvious,” Ben Sulayem told Motorsport.com.
“They talk and then they say: ‘Where are you putting the money? Why we don’t do this?’ But I don’t say, ‘Oh, sorry, what about you?’ The drivers are getting over $100million. Do I ask where they spend it? No, it’s up to them. It’s their right.
“So please, it’s not only me saying it is none of their business. We do whatever we do with our money. It’s our business. It’s also [the same] with them and their money. It’s their business.
“But I don’t really sometimes understand. It’s always about the FIA. ‘Why are we doing this? Why are we doing that?’ But did anyone go to FOM? I say it again and again – stewards do not grow on trees. It takes time to educate them. It takes time to train them. And then you evolve them, so we have a programme.
“I see the point about having them maybe like the Premier League where they [the referees] are paid. But we don’t have the money to do that.
“So we have to be also very careful of the way we are going. As long as they are committed, fair, and they are trained properly, then there will be stewards who come and go.”
The FIA sacked its leading steward Tim Mayer in November. Mayer had spent 15 years as an unpaid steward but had not overseen a race since the Mexican Grand Prix.
Russell said of the situation: « I do feel, [as] a personal view, not one of on behalf of the drivers, but personal view, I do think we’re at a point now in this sport that we do need a full-time professional steward in where they earn a real salary.
« They’re not effectively volunteers and I do think within the pool of stewards we’ve got now, they are definitely up to standard. So it’s not saying anything bad about the current stewards, it’s just saying I feel we should be having system stewarding week in, week out. »
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