Garry Connelly, Chairman of the FIA Stewards in Formula 1, held a meeting with F1 drivers and team representatives on Thursday ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix weekend to discuss future changes to the racing guidelines.

The aim of the meeting was to further define the rights and responsibilities of a driver performing an overtake and a driver being overtaken in order to promote safer wheel-to-wheel racing and improve the consistency of the Stewards’ rulings.

According to Connelly, “the meeting was the most productive one we’ve [ever] attended… The drivers were fantastic with their input. Very constructive. There was not one negative comment. There was no finger-pointing. It was very inspiring to see the world’s best drivers communicating clearly and speaking constructively on how we can improve the Driving Standards Guidelines to the benefit of the drivers and to make all of our jobs easier.”

The Driving Standards Guidelines and the rules around overtaking and wheel-to-wheel racing have sparked significant discussion over the past months after multiple incidents involving Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. Connelly emphasised that the goal of the Driving Standards Guidelines is consistency – something that many have criticised the FIA for lacking when making decisions around wheel-to-wheel incidents.

Connelly said: “The Driving Standards Guidelines are a living document, so every year, as the F1 Stewards, we try to meet with the drivers, sporting directors and FIA representatives to see if we need to tweak the guidelines to use the experience of the last 12 months and see what improvements we can make to ensure consistency. The goal of the guidelines is consistency.”

“As Stewards, if drivers and teams and the FIA agree that they want rules of guidelines to allow more aggressive driving, we’ll apply those rules or guidelines. Likewise, if they want stricter standards, we’ll apply those.”

While the FIA have not given an indication as to how the guidelines may change, the Single-Seater Sporting Director and former FIA Safety Director, Tim Maylon, highlighted the efforts that the FIA are making to improve the safety aspect of circuits, specifically gravel traps.

“As the FIA, we work continuously with circuits to evolve in many ways. Obviously, we are working on the safety aspect of circuits. But what that meeting highlighted is that there are a number of considerations on the sporting side, which we can prioritise for circuits going forward” said Maylon.

“As we have done this year, we introduced gravel traps, starting in Austria, and obviously, with this weekend being perhaps the most obvious with gravel traps added in a number of places. We continue to work with circuits on all topics, but it was very useful in yesterday’s meeting to get the insight of the drivers and see how they prioritise the gravel trap concept, not only for track limits, but also for managing some of the situations that have arisen with overtaking during the course of the last four or five races. In all, there was a commitment to work together to find solutions that work for everyone.”