FIA president Ben Sulayem says "we don't have the money" for permanent stewards/referees, FOM should pay them
2 years ago by Microw to c/formula1
(George) Russell, who is also a director of the drivers union, said permanent stewards who attend every F1 race should be looked into but Ben Sulayem claims the FIA does not have the money.
"But I don’t really sometimes understand. It’s always about the FIA. ‘Why are we doing this? Why are we doing that?’ But did anyone go to FOM?”
“I say it again and again – stewards do not grow on trees. It takes time to educate them. It takes time to train them. And then you evolve them, so we have a programme.
“I see the point about having them maybe like the Premier League where they [the referees] are paid. But we don’t have the money to do that.
“So we have to be also very careful of the way we are going. As long as they are committed, fair, and they are trained properly, then there will be stewards who come and go.”
If FOM is training and paying all the stewards, F1 can start moving away from the FIA as a sanctioning body. Who needs them at that point? FOM can create their own car designs and enforce their own rules as well. Sounds like a win.
That's a load of BS
Maybe Ben doesn't need to show up to as many events as he does? Surely that saves money.
It hurts to see people volunteer to steward when at least a quarter of the grid are straight up rich as fuck. Piastri, Zhou, Norris, Russell, and of course Stroll.
(Btw how can you be a fresh human with all the resources in the world behind you and end up... not even close to natural talents like Max, Senna? What a waste of time and money.)
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Number of people who believe the FIA can't afford it: 0.
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