Formula One will introduce a new structure for race stewards
this season in an attempt to speed up decision making and avoid the
controversies that marred 2007, the governing FIA said on
Monday.
Formula One drivers Jenson
Button (left) and Rubens Barrichello pose with the new Honda RA108
during the launch of the 2008 Honda Racing F1 Team car and livery
at its headquarters in Brackley, England, yesterday.
International Automobile Federation president Max Mosley said
retiring permanent steward Tony Scott-Andrews would not be
replaced.
Instead, there would be a non-voting administrator in Alan
Donnelly.
Briton Donnelly, a former Labor member of the European
Parliament, has previously attended races as Mosley's
representative in the paddock as well as being an FIA
consultant.
"Alan Donnelly will be there at all the races," Mosley told
reporters.
"The idea is that he will be non-voting. There will be three
stewards that vote but Alan's job will be first of all to make an
interface between them and the race control and the press and so
on.
"Secondly, it will be to try and keep some sort of momentum so
that we get the decisions quickly ... there is no excuse for taking
as long as it has."
Stewards' enquiries hung over the latter part of the season in
2007, with the outcome of the championship itself in doubt for
weeks after the final race in Brazil because of a McLaren appeal
concerning rival teams' fuel temperatures.
Mosley said Donnelly, who is also working with the International
Olympic Committee on sports governance issues, would "keep the
pressure on to get things done quickly."
The season starts in Australia on March 16.
The FIA president said that the sport had moved on from a
scandal which cost McLaren a US$100 million fine and all its
constructors' points for having Ferrari information in its
possession.
"I think Formula One comes out of things like this stronger,
because I think it has demonstrated a willingness on our part to do
what we had to do to make sure it's fair," Mosley said.
"Lewis (Hamilton)'s success, and also the success of some of the
other younger drivers, has given renewed interest to the whole
Formula One image.
"There are an awful lot of people who would be superstars if it
wasn't for Lewis," added Mosley. "(Sebastian) Vettel for example,
and I think (Sebastien) Bourdais will probably surprise a few
people this year. Then there's (Poland's Robert) Kubica, (Germany's
Nico) Rosberg, and (Adrian) Sutil is probably very good if he gets
half a chance in a car."
Hamilton, now 23, had an extraordinary debut season with McLaren
last year and set a string of records for a rookie starting with
nine podium finishes in a row and going on to win four races.
The Briton finished the year as championship runner-up to
Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, missing out by a single point on becoming
the sport's first rookie champion as well as the youngest.
Vettel, 20, finished fourth for Toro Rosso in China after
running third in Japan. Frenchman Bourdais joins the German as
teammate after winning the last four ChampCar titles in
America.
Mosley said Hamilton, who this month signed a new contract
keeping him at McLaren to the end of 2012, had everything to look
forward to.
"If you are thinking just about the drivers, dispassionately, it
was Raikkonen's turn more than it was Lewis's turn and I think
Lewis will get plenty of turns," he said of the 2007 title
outcome.
"Unless something goes dramatically wrong, Lewis will win
several championships."
(Agencies via Shanghai Daily January 30, 2008)
