Lewis Hamilton accuses 2021 race stewards of bias, wants ‘non-biased’ officials

Lewis Hamilton has called for “non-biased stewards” after claiming that some of them have close ties to certain drivers and have developed a liking towards them. The Mercedes driver was addressing a question with regards to the consistency in decisions during races last season, and how it can be improved.

The 2021 season was mired in controversy after Michael Masi’s decision at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Apart from that, there were a number of decisions by the race stewards that were questioned during the course of the campaign by every team.

The lack of consistency when it came to penalties for similar incidents, like drivers pushing each other off track and cutting corners, was questioned. During the first pre-season press conference on Wednesday, drivers were hoping that FIA’s new structural changes will bring some clarity before the first race in Bahrain.

Hamilton, however, feels some of the decisions made by the stewards in the past were biased towards certain drivers. He stopped short of picking out a specific incident, but wants non-biased race stewards assigned in 2022.

“We need to make sure we get non-biased stewards,” Hamilton said, as quoted by The Guardian. “Racing drivers, some are very, very good friends with certain individuals. Some travel with certain individuals, and tend to take more of a keen liking to some of them.”

“I just think [we need] people who have no bias and are super central when it comes to making decisions,” he added.

It was unclear if Hamilton, who felt the race result in Abu Dhabi was manipulated, was referring to Vitantonio Liuzzi, a former Red Bull and Toro Rosso driver. The Italian was the driver steward at four races last year, including the Brazilian GP, when Max Verstappen was not penalised for pushing Hamilton off track.