Flak Flies Over Rash of Grand-prix Penalties

The former triple world champions Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda have attacked the system of FIA stewards presiding over matters of race discipline at grands prix and have criticized the rash of penalties that have been handed out by them this season.

Stewart said: "At the present time the governance of the sport is largely being managed by part-time amateurs. However well intentioned these people are they just do not have sufficient knowledge to do these jobs. But this situation is going to continue unless the formula one teams start to stand up for themselves, go to Bernie Ecclestone, the commercial rights holder, and say that these decisions are jeopardizing the integrity of the sport."

For Lauda, the world champion from 1975, 1977 and 1984, the major concern was that the stewards' actions were interfering with the drivers' ability to race. "The worrying thing for me is that the stewards are really getting too involved in trying to control what the drivers are doing," he said.

Both were moved to speak out by incidents in Sunday's Japanese grand prix when Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa both received a drive-through penalty. The British driver was penalized for running wide at the first corner after the start, scattering the field in all directions, and the Brazilian for driving his Ferrari into the side of Hamilton's McLaren, putting the Briton into a spin which dropped him to the tail of the field.

Later in the race, Massa spun after colliding with Sébastien Bourdais as he accelerated back on to the circuit in his Toro Rosso after a routine pit stop. Bourdais was held responsible and received a 25sec penalty, elevating Massa from eighth to seventh in the final results which saw him finish the day only five points behind Hamilton in the drivers' championship with two races left.

"You've got to remember that Bourdais was racing for a championship point every bit as seriously as Massa was, so to put him [Bourdais] back and hand Massa another point at this fragile and very late stage in the championship certainly did not seem right," said Stewart, who feels that the governing body should appoint full-time paid officials to the role.

For his part Lauda agreed with Massa's penalty, but thought it was absurd that Hamilton had been penalized at the first corner for nothing more than going about his normal business as a racing driver. "All Lewis was doing was braking late into a corner which he is perfectly entitled to do," the Austrian said. "Either you let these guys race or they do nothing. The stewards need to loosen their influence. They should only start getting involved when something really serious occurs, which wasn't the case at Fuji on Sunday."

Martin Whitmarsh, the McLaren chief executive, said of Hamilton's penalty: "I don't understand [the stewards' decision] at the moment but I'm sure there must have been other things that I didn't see. Clearly Lewis did not believe that anything he did warranted a penalty. He was upset by what happened with Massa but we told him to get on and race which is what he did."

It is not the first time this season that Hamilton has suffered at the hands of the stewards. At the Belgian grand prix he was relegated from first to third having received a 25sec penalty for cutting a chicane in an overtaking duel with the Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen. In the season's second grand prix, at Malaysia, Hamilton and his team-mate, Heikki Kovalainen, were demoted five places on the starting grid after the pair were ruled to have deliberately impeded rivals during qualifying. The governing body, the FIA, said it had no comment to make.

2008 penalties to date

Australia Kazuki Nakajima picks up a 10-place grid penalty for Malaysian GP for shunting Robert Kubica. Rubens Barrichello is disqualified for ignoring a pit-lane red

Spain Stop-go penalty forNick Heidfeld who pits as safety car is out

Monaco Kimi Raikkonen hit with a drive-through penalty for changing tyres too close to start of race

Canada Lewis Hamilton, above, and Nico Rosberg have 10-place grid penalties imposed for French GP after the pit-lane collision that ended the races of Hamilton and Raikkonen

France Hamilton incurs a drive-through penalty for short-cutting the track overtaking Sebastian Vettel

Belgium A 25-second penalty for Hamilton cutting a chicane puts Felipe Massa on top of podium in his place

Singapore Massa picks up a drive-through penalty for a pit error. Rosberg and Robert Kubica hit with stop-go penalties for pitting while lane closed

Japan Both Hamilton and Massa given drive-through penalties for overtaking incidents. Sébastien Bourdais also incurs a 25-second penalty