The FIA has made a significant decision for the first time ever on the eve of this weekend’s Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, which makes it clear what drivers must do

The FIA has published its guidelines to F1 stewards – and drivers may pay the penalty(Image: Formula 1 via Getty Images)

The FIA has published its official Formula 1 stewards’ guidelines documents ahead of this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix. In an unprecedented step, the sport’s governing body said it has made the guidelines publicly available for the first time ever in a bid to achieve greater transparency of decisions.

We often know what sort of behaviour on track is likely to be punished by the stewards. And, thanks to past precedents, it is usually easy to predict the punishment that is likely to be given for some of the more commonly-seen types of rule-breaking.

But it has never been exactly clear what the wording of the FIA guidelines to stewards actually is, as the document has never been made publicly available. But that has now changed with the governing body publishing the documents ahead of the Spielberg race.

The decision has been welcomes by Grand Prix Drivers’ Association director George Russell, who said: “Greater transparency within the governance of our sport is an important issue and this is a useful step in that direction.

“Hopefully it will be beneficial for the sport to give the media and fans a clearer understanding of the rules of engagement when we’re racing on track, and to help them understand how the stewards reach their decisions.”

The guidance to stewards is split into two documents: The penalty guidelines, and the driving standards guidelines. The latter was last updated after the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix, at which a meeting was held with drivers to discuss their contents. The FIA said “further refinements” are to be made in the future.

The current version tells the stewards how they should act in some lesser-seen circumstances, such as when a driver is shown a black flag, which means they have been disqualified from a session, or the black-and-orange flag – known colloquially as the ‘meatball flag’ – which forces a driver to stop because they have a significantly damaged car.

Ignoring either of those signals from the marshals or race control will result in some of the harshest sanctions that the stewards are able to give, under the guidelines. It would result in the offending driver being disqualified from the race anyway, while a whopping five points would be added to their racing licence.

The FIA said it plans to publish similar documents for the other World Championship racing series which it sanctions, including the likes of the World Rally Championship and Formula E. President Mohammed ben Sulayem said: “We are today publishing the penalty and driving standards guidelines that assist [the stewards] with their decisions.

“This will give fans and members of the media a much deeper and more accurate insight into how decisions are made in Formula 1. The penalty guidelines have been a core tool for almost a decade while the driving standards guidelines introduced in 2022 and constantly updated have brought the most important voices, those of the drivers, to the table to create a genuine reference for certain racing situations.”