Formula 1 drivers, FIA meet over contentious racing rules

Formula 1 drivers met with the governing FIA to voice concerns over recent policing of racing rules, although no immediate changes to driver guidelines have been agreed.

F1's racing guidelines, agreed upon by drivers and the FIA at last year's Qatar Grand Prix, have led to a series of controversial decisions.

Penalties for wheel-to-wheel incidents have been a major talking point of the 2025 season, with drivers regularly frustrated by inconsistency in decisions week to week and in blanket rules sometimes being applied to very different circuits.

Drivers have been pushing for changes to the guidelines the FIA use to determine penalties and got the chance to put their concerns to the FIA on Thursday night in Qatar ahead of this year's race.

Speaking on Thursday, Grand Prix Drivers' Association chairman and Williams driver Carlos Sainz said: "There is potential to do better. I think the guidelines themselves have created more problems than solutions to a lot of issues that have happened this year in the ways we judge incidents. There's been barely any room for racing incidents this year."

Calls for a permanent set of race stewards -- including at least one with recent F1 racing experience -- have grown.

"Today we are really sticking to the book," Ferrari's Charles Leclerc said on Thursday. "And that makes it difficult to have common sense sometimes in specific situations."

The FIA described the Thursday night meeting as "frank, open and collegial," with a picture shared of the drivers gathered with officials from the governing body at the Lusail International Circuit paddock.

Five contentious incidents were addressed from this year which the basis of most of the discussions centred around -- Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oscar Piastri's clash in Brazil, Sainz and Oliver Bearman's clash in Italy, Sainz and Liam Lawson's clash in the Netherlands, a track limits incident involving Lando Norris and Leclerc at Austin's U.S. Grand Prix and Leclerc and Max Verstappen leaving the track at the start of the Mexico City Grand Prix and not being penalized.

An FIA statement on Friday announced several major takeaways from the discussions, although no concrete decisions have been set in stone. No commitment has been made on any changes for the final two races of the 2025 season, although the FIA said the Qatar discussions will "inform any future refinements to the DSGs" down the line.

During the meeting drivers voiced a clear preference for hearings on penalties to be held after the race, rather than being dished out during a grand prix before they have a chance to put their case forward, and stressed their collective view that guidelines cannot cover every scenario.

The statement added that the drivers "underlined the importance of having an experienced Driver Steward on each panel," while also discussing reviews to yellow flag caution situations during races and the policing of the blue flags that get waved to instruct lapped traffic to let oncoming cars pars.

Speaking ahead of the meeting on Thursday, GPDA chairman and Williams driver Carlos Sainz used an example of Sky Sports F1's punditry team to highlight why people with recent experience is crucial in determining penalties on racing incidents.

"I'm going to give you as honest an answer as possible," Sainz said. "I think recently, after the races, I've seen some [TV] analysis done of quite a lot of the incidents.

"In some of them it was Karun Chandhok [as the analyst], in some of them, Jolyon Palmer, some of them, I think was Anthony Davidson. Every time I see this analysis that they do and the verdict that they give from racing drivers that have been recently racing, I think they do a very good analysis, and they put the blame correctly, most of the time, on who actually has the blame, or if it's actually just a racing incident ...

"My future ideal is no guidelines and people that are able to judge these sort of incidents as well as these three people that I just mentioned do, after races.

"This is just my opinion, but I'm quite impressed at the job that some of the broadcasters do after a race with this in-depth analysis of each of the incidents and how they apply blame or no blame, into certain scenarios.

"I think that's a level of analysis and a level of stewardness, if you want to call it that way, that I think is very high level.

"And that probably doesn't mean that we will agree 100% on the cases of what these three people, three ex-drivers, give, but I think they are a lot of times very close to being 90%, let's say, correct.

"If I would have to go and see Formula 1 in the future, and the stewarding level, this is more or less a level that I would appreciate."