One of the biggest talking points of the 2024 Formula 1 season was the penalties handed out to drivers during races.
Max Verstappen went on to win his fourth Drivers’ Championship but he was also involved in several controversial incidents as well.
Verstappen was criticised for his driving in Mexico City when he drove championship rival Lando Norris off the track early in the race.
The Red Bull driver was doing everything he could to protect his lead in the standings and pushed the regulations to the limit throughout the year.
George Russell – who acts as a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association – suggested at one point last season that 19 out of 20 drivers agreed that rules over overtaking needed to change.
There have also been calls for permanent stewards at Grand Prix to try and make decisions between races more consistent, although that suggestion seems unlikely to play out any time soon.
Eddie Jordan was speaking to David Coulthard on a bonus episode of the Formula For Success Podcast.
The former team principal was asked how F1 can fix its penalty problem and admitted that dialogue needed to be opened between every party to try and solve the issue.
Eddie Jordan tells F1 to ‘open dialogue’ to fix inconsistent penalty problem
Coulthard asked Jordan how he would solve the ‘random’ penalty allocations being given out by the FIA at each race.
Jordan explained that his solution would be: “Dialogue, open dialogue.
“The drivers, either as a representative body or all together, which is always dangerous when you have too many voices, but nevertheless, if you have an approved group of drivers who are due – like the GDPA – they should sit in front [of the FIA].
“The answer back from the FIA [saying] that it’s none of their business or they’re not interested is wrong.
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“I think there needs to be…without dialogue, you’re never going to have happiness and you’re never going to have peace.
“And I’m sorry guys, I want you to reach out to both parties. It is absolutely vital, you need to have dialogue, or else you have [an] absolute revolution.”
Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso closest to 2025 F1 race ban
After hearing Jordan’s solution to F1’s penalty problem, Coulthard replied: “I think stakeholders should all have a voice and that should be the FIA as the existing governing body, the drivers as the existing assets are out there and understand well what it’s like to drive these F1 cars and the shareholders and the teams.
“And collectively, they should have a chance to vote on what they feel represents fair penalties.
“I think a lot of historical results have started to get in the way of what would seem fair and reasonable.”
Discussions need to take place between the drivers, the FIA and the stewards beyond their weekly meetings to establish the issues each party has the current status quo.
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Kevin Magnussen was the first driver since Romain Grosjean to pick up a one-race ban in 2024 for accumulating too many penalty points.
Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso are the closest to picking up a ban and following in Magnussen’s footsteps, with each driver currently sitting on eight penalty points.
Once a driver reaches 12 points they have to sit out a race, which won’t faze Verstappen who isn’t going to change his style any time soon.
Nobody wants to see a driver – particularly one of Verstappen’s calibre – miss a race and so a compromise needs to be found, preferably before the season starts in Australia in March.
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