The 2025 Australian Grand Prix starts the new Formula 1 season in just over a month, but the FIA is facing an immediate crisis after a decision Christian Horner has backed.
F1 will stage a record-equalling 24-round calendar this year, which starts with the Australian GP on March 16. Melbourne is staging the first race of the season for the first time since the 2019 term, though Albert Park was set to start the 2020 campaign before it was abandoned.
Red Bull will head Down Under hoping the Australian GP starts their path back to the top of the Formula 1 constructors’ championship after McLaren took the title last year. Horner saw his squad slip from back-to-back titles to just third place with a 77-point deficit to first place.
FIA faces a crisis replacing sacked driver steward Johnny Herbert ahead of Australian GP
Yet despite the season-opening Australian GP now being just over a month away, the FIA has an immediate crisis on the governing body’s hands before Formula 1 flies to Melbourne. The FIA is struggling to replace Johnny Herbert after sacking him from the driver stewards panel.
That is according to Auto Action (Issue 1904, p30), which reports that the FIA is struggling to find a volunteer happy to replace Herbert as a steward alongside Derek Warwick, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Enrique Bernoldi. Those four each agreed to do a baseline of six Grand Prix a year.
READ MORE: How many penalty points every 2025 F1 driver has and who is close to a ban
But Herbert’s sacking has left the FIA short with Warwick and Liuzzi unwilling to increase the number of Grands Prix they are stewards at to 12. Bernoldi already pulled back in 2024, too, as he was a steward for three Grand Prix – with Herbert taking over in two and Liuzzi in one.
Christian Horner backs the FIA’s decision to sack Johnny Herbert as a driver steward
Herbert was ultimately a driver steward at eight of the 24 Grand Prix in 2024, Liuzzi in seven, Warwick in six and Bernold three. Now, the FIA is facing an immediate crisis trying to replace the ex-Benetton, Stewart and Jaguar driver, whose decisions irked Max Verstappen last year.
The three-time Grand Prix winner drew a lot of criticism from the Verstappen camp over the 2024 season. Max’s father Jos accused the Briton of being bias when Herbert was a steward after Verstappen drew two 10-second time penalties in Mexico after taking Lando Norris off.
Max also weighed in with Verstappen claiming ‘I’ve got the wrong passport for this paddock’ in response to his penalties. The four-time F1 champion also questioned the Briton’s work as a pundit whilst also a steward, with Verstappen finding Herbert’s public criticism ‘abnormal’.
Red Bull team principal Horner stresses that Verstappen did not have a say the FIA’s decision to fire Herbert from his role as a steward. But as he feels it was ‘totally inappropriate’ for the Briton to be a steward and a pundit together, Horner has backed the FIA for sacking Herbert.
Leave feedback about this