Formula 1 reckless drivers rule on the way

It is long overdue, but Formula One is set to establish a penalty crackdown on crazy or careless drivers who flout safety parameters.

When the basic requirement in their workplace is for committed drivers to vie for every metre of space in close formation at 200mph, the temptation to chance it sometimes is too strong to resist.

Either that or sheer stupidity without thought takes over to plunge both the attacker and the defender into a life-threatening position.

Few people know what 200mph feels like. Here’s how: Imagine you are in a jet-liner seat at that take-off speed and there’s a car, maybe two, jostling right alongside, inches away. Scary or what?

That’s why the FIA, the grand prix law makers, proposed a rule to punish the bad boys and seven out of the 11 teams agreed to a system that would grant race stewards the power to punish with penalty points.

It is a plan yet to be ratified by the upcoming World Council meeting, but I can’t see it failing.

Nobody in his right mind would argue with the decision, certainly not the likes of former champion Jenson Button, the most recent victim, who was stupidly roughed up by his wheel-bashing Mclaren teammate Segio Perez.

Suffice to say Button’s reaction, mostly unreportable, was one of astonishment at the wild Mexican’s antics and the team had a word or two of admonishment to say to him, too.

Different offences would incur a variety of points and should a culprit driver, fearless or foolish, tally up 12, he would be handed an automatic one-race ban. Quite right, too.

Grand prix legend Sir Jackie Stewart, a mainstay of safety at speed with sad memories of horrendous death crashes and terrifying near misses when he was winning his three world titles, is a prime supporter of the FIA’s edict.

He wants to take it a step further with a full-time, trackside watchdog and he told me: “It’s wrong that we have part-time stewards dealing with safety.

“It is just not right and proper to have part-timers who have been brought into a grand prix from any other country for just one or two races.

“There has to be the same people all of the time so there is no risk that you are going to have peak and valley judgements that differ. We need professional, paid-for expertise and authority.”

It would be great for F1 if the respected former champion undertook to do the job. But that could trigger a dilemma. At the moment he’s a Lotus ambassador and one of his drivers, Romain Grosjean, was so much out of control last season he was involved in seven incidents that resulted in the first F1 one-race ban for a decade or so. And I’m not sure he has fully calmed down.