President mohammed ben sulayem

McLaren CEO Zak Brown: McLaren CEO Zak Brown has called for a fundamental overhaul of the stewards system in Formula 1, advocating for the introduction of full-time, professional stewards in order to simplify and streamline the sport's increasingly complicated rulebook. Brown's comments come amidst a series of controversial penalty decisions this season, particularly involving McLaren’s Lando Norris and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Brown described F1's current regulations as “overly complicated” and “over-regulated.” He emphasised that the sport needs to empower its stewards with more resources and access to technology to make more consistent and informed decisions during high-stakes incidents. At present, the F1 stewards are unpaid volunteers who rely on a set of complex rules and limited technology to make split-second judgments on track decisions. “I think we need full-time stewards,” Brown said in an interview with BBC Sport. “I don’t think the way we’re set up as a sport, we are set up for success. We’re racing too much to a rulebook now versus good old-fashioned racing.”

Brown argued that allowing stewards to use their experience, along with more advanced tools, would improve the quality of decisions and reduce inconsistencies.