F1 / NEWS & CONTEXT

Rob Smedley suggests extra F1 stewards to speed up race decisions

Former F1 race engineer Rob Smedley says extra stewards could resolve simpler incidents during races, while complex cases would still be reviewed afterwards.

GPBeat · Newsroom28 Sept 2026, 20:30 · 1 min

Former Formula 1 race engineer Rob Smedley has suggested adding a second group of stewards to deal with straightforward incidents during races. That could reduce delays when a possible penalty leaves the final result unsettled. RacingNews365 reported his comments on 28 September 2026, citing the High Performance Racing podcast.

Smedley said stewards are extremely busy during races and questioned why some incidents that appear clear to him are left for investigation afterwards. He argued that a race cannot be stopped while officials deliberate, but an additional group could handle some decisions more quickly.

Smedley would still leave complex cases for post-race investigation and keep results provisional, so officials could correct a rule breach missed during the race.

Sources 01

SOURCEOplossing voor eindeloos wachten op stewards geopperd: "Toch vrij duidelijk?"RacingNews365 Nederland · Source date as found: 2026-09-28

Source context

RacingNews365’s report of 28 September 2026 relays Smedley’s remarks from the High Performance Racing podcast.

Claims and supporting evidence 5

RacingNews365 attributes the remarks to Rob Smedley, a former F1 race engineer, citing the High Performance Racing podcast. This establishes an attributed opinion, not a statement independently checked against the podcast.

This source finding must be read within the stated scope and source context. Speaker, role and source chain Reported on 28 September 2026; the podcast episode date is not established by the retrieved article. The podcast itself was not retrieved.

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Smedley suggests an additional group of stewards to deal with some incidents more quickly during races. His suggestion is not an announced FIA policy.

This source finding must be read within the stated scope and source context. Proposed handling of race incidents Reported on 28 September 2026. No implementation, formal proposal or FIA response is documented in the retrieved page.

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Smedley says race stewards are extremely busy during races; this is his explanation for decisions being deferred, not an independently measured finding.

This source finding must be read within the stated scope and source context. Reason offered for the proposal Reported on 28 September 2026. The retrieved material provides no staffing figures or review-time measurements.

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Smedley would retain post-race investigations for genuinely complex cases and for correcting a rule breach missed during the race. He does not propose abolishing provisional results.

This source finding must be read within the stated scope and source context. Limits of Smedley's suggestion Reported on 28 September 2026. These are the qualifications to his opinion as relayed by RacingNews365, not a description of an adopted procedure.

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RacingNews365 says a possible time penalty can delay a race's official result when an incident is investigated after the session.

This source finding must be read within the stated scope and source context. Reported consequence of deferred decisions General context in the article published on 28 September 2026; no particular race is identified. The page gives no case count, duration or specific race example.

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This article was produced with AI assistance. Source references make its supporting evidence traceable.