F1 stewards given increased power over incidents

Revised Sporting Regulations issued by the FIA have confirmed that stewards will have the authority to investigate any incident deemed worthy of penalty in Formula 1 this season.

The four-person stewarding panel will now be able to investigate any incident without it having been previously reported by race director Charlie Whiting.

“The race director may report any on-track incident or suspected breach of these Sporting Regulations or the Code (an “Incident”) to the stewards,” reads the updated regulation.

“After review it shall be at the discretion of the stewards to decide whether or not to proceed with an investigation. The stewards may also investigate an incident noted by themselves.

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The revised regulations also state that "unless it is clear to the stewards that a driver was wholly or predominantly to blame for an incident no penalty will be imposed.”

Should a driver be handed any of the available penalties – five seconds, 10 seconds, a drive through, or a stop-and-go penalty – and be unable to serve it due to retiring from a race, the stewards will now have the authority to hand them a grid drop for the next event.

Another tweak to the regulations confirms that the pit lane will now only be open for 10 minutes before the start of a race, in order to ensure drivers are present on the grid to observe the national anthem.

Previously, the pit lane opened half an hour prior to the formation lap, and closed 15 minutes later.

The pit lane will now close 20 minutes before the start of the formation lap, thus ensuring drivers will be ready to line up at the front of the grid to observe the anthem at 14 minutes to the hour.