FIA FIA Drivers' Commission

Fenderman

Rooters Reporter
The new organisation for drivers of all categories of motor sports had its inaugural meeting in Paris this week.The new FIA Drivers' Commission has been set up to provide a vehicle for drivers to have their views represented at a higher level than has previously been the case.

The main topic of discussion concerned the consistency of race stewarding and, in particular, the behaviour of drivers and driving standards in the lower formulas. It's interesting that the FIA have chosen to report the occasion with remarks that imply the body will be another arm in their attempts to improve driving standards via regulation, and improved consistency, in bringing drivers to book for their transgressions. Maybe I misread the piece that you can find on the FIA portal here: http://www.fia.com/news/fia-drivers-commission-meets-paris .

Anyway, our pal Karun Chandhok was there and apparently performed rather well, highlighting the dismal behaviour of some up and coming drivers in such classes as Auto GP and GP2.. He is quoted in the FIA's piece:

“I think the drivers should have a voice perhaps in how some of the rules are created for championships,” Chandhok proposed. “For example, the qualifying format in WEC which is complicated and potentially dangerous as it requires two drivers to do two laps, or even the engine situation in Formula 3 which is a bit messy, or the Formula 4 situation.”

Chandhok is clearly a young man of many talents as evidenced by his performances in the commentary box. As an aside, I still think it was a poor show that he has not been given what I would call a fair shake in F1. I really would like to see what he could do with a competitive car.

Anyway, back to the Drivers' Commission, is this going to be just a talking shop or will it have some teeth? Will it get the promotion and air time that the FIA want it to get without needing controversies every five minutes to keep it in the minds of our beloved media? Most importantly will the Commission actually do anything other than drink lots of Champers and scoff Beluga caviar?
 
The new FIA Drivers' Commission has been set up to provide a vehicle for drivers ...
Nice :)

This doesn't look likely to actually change driving standards, on the face of it. But it fulfils the requirement to be seen to be doing something about it. So :thumbsup: to the FIA.
 
Does the GPDA still exist? Would have been good if the FIA could have used this as the template for their drivers commission and then expanded it to encompass the lower formulae. It did some very good work on track and car safety in the early days and could have been a useful way to encourage better driving standards.
 
Yes. Pedro de la Rosa is current chairperson with Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel as the current co-directors. The GPDA is seen as a trade union of Grand Prix drivers whereas the new commission has a wider scope ion that it represents drivers from across all categories and its membership rules will be and its remit will, I'm sure, be quite different in nature and application. I'm quite interested in finding out a bit more about it when I get a moment.
 
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