Stewart agrees with Hamilton on GPDA’s role

Sir Jackie Stewart urged Formula 1 management to give the GPDA association, sometimes referred to as the “union of F1 racers”, more rights and to take its views into account.

“In the past, when I was president of the GPDA, this organization had a lot more influence than it does now. I consider the current state of affairs to be wrong, because the riders should influence everything more actively,” says the three-time world champion.

The GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers’ Association) was founded in 1961 with the mission of raising safety standards. The role of this organization gradually increased, it began to dictate conditions to the championship organizers and promoters, including organizing boycotts of races if its demands were not met. This was the case, for example, in Belgium in 1969 and in Germany in 1970.

Also, it was at the request of the GPDA that the Nürburgring Nordschleife was excluded from the championship calendar after a major accident that nearly killed Niki Lauda in 1976.

Forty years ago, a period began in which the association was dissolved, but it was revived in the mid-1990s after the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna in Imola during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. However, the GPDA has retained its former influence has been lost and Lewis Hamilton has repeatedly said that drivers’ voices need to be heard and their views taken into account when drafting the next championship regulations.

The owner of seven titles, among others, made a statement on this subject in Abu Dhabi during last season’s final. He then gathered all the drivers of the championship for a special dinner dedicated to Sebastian Vettel’s farewell to Formula 1, after which he said: “Maybe we will make it an annual tradition and it is possible that we will have another such event during the season.” meeting. We can do a lot as GPDA, as an organized and united group.

We are responsible, each of us, and together we can influence a lot.”