The FIA have decided to increase the number of race stewards from three to four at F1’s season-opening race of the 2025 season in Australia next week.
F1’s governing body, who dropped ex-F1 driver Johnny Herbert as a steward in January, have altered its sporting regulations for grands prix deemed “high in workload.”
A report in Autosport details that four officials will be present in the stewards room in Australia, China, Canada, Singapore, Mexico and Brazil.
Usually, stewarding panels consist of three officials – one of whom is a former driver and another who is appointed by the national sporting authority overseeing the weekend’s race.
The change has been made to aid the decision-making process, with stewards often having to make quick calls and hand out penalties mid-race after incidents on track.
Article 15.1 of F1’s 2025 sporting rules now states that “a minimum of three and a maximum of four stewards, one of whom will be appointed chairman” will be appointed each race.
Decisions will continue to be agreed by the full panel.
McLaren boss Zak Brown has called for F1 teams to jointly fund a full-time team of race officials, but FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has dismissed the willingness of teams to voluntarily contribute.
“The teams can complain, drivers can complain, but then they don’t want to pay for it,” Ben Sulayem said last month.
“I’m being very, very honest and straight with you, this takes a lot of investment. It has taken us more than two and a half years to get to what we are achieving now. Do we have the results? We will know the results when the season starts.
‘It is very important. What if the race director decides not to go or if he gets sick? It’s the same as the FIA. If something happens to me tomorrow, the FIA will continue to function without me, so this has to be a system. It’s not about individuals.
“There are a lot of mistakes and then you blame the FIA. It’s easy to blame the FIA. Why can’t you be productive in your criticism and say: ‘How can we find a solution?’
‘But where is the solution? The solution is in training, the solution is to bring people in.”
Ben Sulayem has also announced there will be more than one F1 race director this season, after Niels Wittich was removed from his role in the latter weeks of last season.
The 2025 F1 season starts with the Australian Grand Prix on 14-16 March.
