Guenther Steiner urges FIA to increase use of AI after British GP safety car backlash
· Yahoo Sports
Guenther Steiner has urged the FIA to introduce permanent, full-time stewards and increase the use of artificial intelligence to prevent a repeat of the anticlimactic end to the British Grand Prix.
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The race at Silverstone, which saw Ferrari's Charles Leclerc claim his first victory of the season ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and his own team-mate Lewis Hamilton, ended behind the safety car.
The safety car was deployed on lap 48 of 52 when Red Bull's Max Verstappen spun out and became beached in the gravel at Stowe corner. While it initially seemed as though racing would resume before the end of the race, with the notice that the safety car would come in being shown on the broadcasts, the race finished under safety car conditions.
The FIA later confirmed that the message had been shown in error and explained that there were not enough laps left to complete the unlapping process, which is why the safety car stayed out.
During an appearance on The Red Flags Podcast, Steiner did not hold back in his assessment of the situation.
"So we need to start a campaign soon. You know what I'm always saying: full-time stewards that work on a plan. This is not to blame the stewards because the stewards have nothing to do with this; it's the race director," the former Haas team principal explained.
"But if the race director had permanent stewards, the permanent stewards would help him to find ways around not to look like we did again at Silverstone.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari"I would agree if the lapped cars have unlapped themselves at least half a lap, and there's only one lap to go, they will not catch them. So they will not be in the way. So we can start the race. But obviously, the race director did what is written in the rulebook."
Questioning whether the software issue that showed the erroneous message on the broadcast was real or not, Steiner added: "I think they said, 'Oh, let's restart the race.' And someone said, 'You cannot do this because the rules say you cannot do this,' and then they said, 'Oh, I'm out of here now. Just stop everything. I don't want to embarrass myself.'
"I have thought a lot about the technical side of FIA, I think they're pretty good, organised. Nikolas Tombazis, in my opinion, for what he has available, he's doing a good job and obviously there's always something, but he's on it. If there is something to be changed, he's on it, he works on it, and gets solutions."
To manage the near-infinite permutations of a race finish, Steiner proposed that the FIA should increase its use of AI.
"But the end of the race, we had the biggest debacle in Formula 1 in the last 50 years five years ago, and have you found a proper solution? No. If you had people there full-time who work on the solution, making a software programme or AI can help a lot to have a quick solution for this," he said.
"You don't need to think for yourself. These cars are away by half a lap. Set the regulations beforehand, not during the race, because you cannot change it then. If this scenario happens, then you have a solution, but you need to present it before. You need to run through a million scenarios. A human being cannot do it."
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