Guenther Steiner shares the permanent change he’s been ‘preaching’ F1 to make for the past 10 years

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Lando Norris won his first British Grand Prix on Sunday, aided by a 10-second penalty handed to McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, who was deemed to be driving erratically behind the safety car.

Ending up as a McLaren one-two, Nico Hulkenberg came home in third to secure his first-ever podium finish in F1, and Sauber’s first since Kamui Kobayashi’s third place at the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix.

Piastri was handed his penalty for an incident that took place after he took control of the pack following the Safety Car’s signal that it was leaving the track.

The 25-year-old went from 135mph to 32mph, shedding over 100mph in a split second, forcing Max Verstappen to take avoiding action, which Sam Bird thinks was artificially dramatic to draw the stewards’ attention towards Piastri.

The penalty for the Australian wasn’t received very well by fans and pundits alike, with Jolyon Palmer believing it to be a ‘heavy-handed’ decision from the stewards in charge at Silverstone.

Guenther Steiner hopes the change will make the stewards’ decisions ‘more consistent’

Speaking on the Red Flags podcast, Guenther Steiner expressed his dismay at the stewards’ decision, stating that Piastri was merely ‘slowing down to get himself in a position to get the best start’, adding, ‘that’s what a race car driver is there to do’.

Steiner identified the issue with the ruling being down to the fact that the stewards are a pool of motorsport experts who are selected by the FIA on a race-by-race basis.

“The solution is, and I’ve been preaching it for 10 years, permanent stewards,” he told his co-hosts. “Then it’s a job, it’s not volunteering.”

“You need to be responsible for what you’re doing because if you do a bad job, guess what? You haven’t got a job anymore because the next one comes in. And if they are permanent, it would be, I hope, more consistent.”

Former Haas boss thinks permanent stewards can work on the regulations and ‘make them better’

Steiner feels like a consistent line-up of stewards at race weekends would improve the sport as a whole, stating, “In between races, while they are not at the racetrack, they can work on the regulations and make them better, putting the effort into fixing them.

“When they go back home, they have to go to their day job, and they cannot spend time thinking or speaking with people about what would be the best way to address this going forward.”

Martin Brundle came to the defence of the stewards’ decision, asserting “he was almost stationary” and that the sudden move “was extremely slow from Oscar.”

Piastri was furious with the penalty, telling his race engineer following the chequered flag, “I think I’ll get myself banned for the year if I say anything here. Thanks for the effort.”