Rob Smedley proposes "augmented stewarding group" to speed up F1 decisions

Former Ferrari and Williams race engineer Rob Smedley has called for Formula 1 to introduce an augmented stewarding group to speed up in-race decision-making and prevent straightforward on-track incidents from lingering well past the chequered flag.

Speaking on the High Performance Racing podcast alongside broadcaster Jake Humphrey and former Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer, Smedley highlighted that the existing FIA stewards often face bandwidth constraints that prevent them from resolving every clash live without disrupting the flow of the Grand Prix. Rob Smedley pointed out that routine clashes frequently face unnecessary post-race delays under the current framework.

“You watch some of these ‘[Incident] will be investigated after the race’ [messages], and you just think this is fairly obvious,” Smedley explained. “Now, the reason why they do this, if you go behind the scenes, is because all the stewards are super busy with the race, right? You can't stop the race and say, ‘Let the stewards decide.’ But there could be an augmented steward group that is able to process these much faster.”

Accelerating In-Race Decisions

Under Smedley's proposed approach, post-race investigations would be reserved strictly for complex incidents rather than clear-cut racing infractions.

“When it's after the race, you should still have the possibility to be investigated after the race, but only for really complex stuff. It should just get processed through,” he added.

Differentiating On-Track Clashes From Technical Breaches

While advocating for faster verdicts on racing incidents, Smedley acknowledged that post-race scrutiny and provisional classifications remain an essential part of the sport's technical oversight. Reflecting on points raised by Szafnauer regarding regulatory compliance, Smedley underscored that technical matters inevitably require time to measure and evaluate after the session concludes.

“You can get rid of it altogether, just as much as you can't get rid of the result being provisional straight after the race to do exactly what Otmar said, which is to right the wrong that could have happened if there's been a breach of regulation and it hasn't been noticed. Then you've got to put that right after the race,” Smedley said.

“There's been tons of those, right? Too much plank wear, rear wings at the wrong height, slot gap too open, too closed, whatever it is, underweight, all of those things. You've got to take into account. It is a technical sport, and because of that, you can only arbitrate on the technicalities of the sport after the race because you've got to measure.”