Alan Jones may quit as 'disillusioned' F1 steward
"Disillusioned" 1980 world champion Alan Jones has indicated he might quit as a Formula 1 steward.
The outspoken Australian, who is 72, told speedcafe.com that he may step down so that he can become more critical about how the sport's officials operate.
"At the end of the day I'm a little bit, shall we say, disillusioned with Formula 1 at the moment, to the extent where I'm seriously thinking of relinquishing my stewardship," said Jones.
"I wholeheartedly disagree with a lot of the ways or the directions that they're going, and obviously you can't shit-can them or criticise them if you're an employee of them, so if I'm an FIA steward, I can hardly turn around and get stuck into them."
A number of on-track incidents and the stewards' reactions have been highly controversial in 2019, and Jones clearly blames the sport's strict rules.
"They hand out a book, which is the steward's book, and page five, paragraph three, line four says that if the battery lead falls off, this is the penalty that will be handed out," said the former Williams driver.
"The steward should be there to have a certain amount of discretion, and at the end of the day, why have an ex-driver in the stewards' room if you can't say to them, 'No, I honestly believe that was a racing accident' or whatever?"
Jones is yet to appear as a FIA steward in 2019.
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Alan could not be more correct.
Hurray for Alan Jones~! I wish more of the ex-F! pilots would come forward and be so bold as to say "dump the current one and re-write the book!" As we have seen from the comments at this site, F1 needs to seriously examine the way they hand out rulings and so-0called penalties. They should be smart enough to know they are ruining the sport w/over-regulation.
For those of us who have spent a lifetime closely following F1, one thing we can say is that AJ is greatly admired for being a man of his word and not being afraid to tell it as it is, warts and all!
AJ was a great driver and World Champion in F1, who is still loved for being not so politically correct - we need more people the same as Alan Jones to make F1 an interesting sport again!
We are all bored with the irrational rules that have made F1 a debacle rather than a high level sport / business. Bravo to AJ, I hope the administrators are listening and get their act together.
i agree with the thoughts of bad decisions,,,if any of the lower field make mistakes they suffer one way or another,,,, but when a so called top driver makes bad move on another its called a racing incidence,,,,how can the rest of the field stand a chance,,,,the f1 fans,and public pay our money to be entertained we love our sport...!,!,! PUT a 1ld of lead onto champions as in other formulars
I agree Chris. For too long the hot-shots have been getting away without penalty for their overall;y aggressive driving. Is it okay to push a mid-field racer off? NO! Is it okay to push a tail-ender off the track? No! There are Marshalls that wave the blue flag and yellow flag, seemingly to no avail In the case of some of the top drivers. The Rules stipulate that they are the same for everyone, so it is time to enforce them. At the same time the silliness ess of som e rules needs to be addressed so as to level the playing field and avoid needless penalties that ruin races. I still think that Vettel got the dirty end of the stick this year, for example. (Lewis cries and win s...)