Former Formula 1 team boss Paul Stoddart spoke to RacingNews365 about the final races of the season…
Paul Stoddart: “As the season progressed, Ferrari was inferior to Mercedes and the fact that the Scuderia drivers were quick to try to part with this year’s cars says it all.
At the end of the season, Sainz was fined in Las Vegas for leaving a drain cover open. But he has nothing to do with it at all. This is force majeure. They say Mercedes did not vote to overturn this decision, but here you need 100% of the votes. Personally, I think Ferrari deserved second place at the end of the season, but politics again decided everything.
And I also believe that Formula 1 racing should be a competition of the best drivers in the best cars, and now everything is decided by the three stewards: “Well, this guy has driven an inch further here. And this one is an inch closer.” But what does racing have to do with it?
Stewards are invited to do their job. Most of them are former racers and they understand that you can’t see those white lines from the cockpit.
Why should this affect the course of the race? Instead of a five-second driver penalty, you can fine the team $50,000, but don’t change the course of the race unless the violation is so obvious that everyone can see that it will affect the outcome.
I understand how difficult this is. We have a fantastic World Cup, which is getting stronger every year, but we are gradually returning to an era where everything is determined by politics and stupidity, and not by talent and technique.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
