F1 stewards vow to improve 'consistency'

Dec.2 - F1 stewards are looking to speed up their deliberating and be more consistent in their decisions.

Particularly among the driver camp, the stewards have faced increasing criticism in recent months as some incidents went unnoticed while others attracted penalties.

Amid that climate, the stewards got together in Vienna this week ahead of the World Motor Sport Council meeting.

"We went through a lot of rules and looked at how we can work with the FIA to tidy up the wording, enabling us to take quicker decisions," said Garry Connelly, the stewards chairman.

"We talked a lot about how we can achieve better consistency."

One of the biggest controversies in 2016 was 'track limits', but Connelly said the FIA is doing a good job to fix that problem by modifying the tracks.

"There are now probably only 11 or 12 corners across the whole championship where there is the potential for cutting corners in a very obvious way," he said.

Connelly said one example is Monza, where at turn 1 a driver will get a "natural penalty" by going off because it takes him longer to rejoin the track.

"That makes it a lot easier for the stewards as the penalty is applied on track," he explained.

Still, he said the job of an F1 steward is difficult because of "subjectivity", unlike a tennis umpire deciding if a ball is either in or out.

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