Johnny Herbert removed as F1 steward by FIA ahead of 2025 season

Weeks before the 2025 Formula 1 season gets underway, one of their race stewards has been removed by the sport’s governing body.

The FIA announced on Wednesday that Johnny Herbert, a former driver who notched three Grand Prix victories during his time on the grid, was being dropped as a race steward. Herbert first became a race official for the 2010 season, when the FIA first added former drivers to the list of stewards.

Despite his years of service, Herbert’s outspoken nature and willingness to provide quotes for media outlets led to criticism regarding his role as a steward. Herbert was one of the race stewards at last year’s Austrian Grand Prix, which saw one of the season’s on-track clashes between title contenders Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.

After the two drivers came together in the closing stages of the race while battling for the lead the stewards, including Herbert, hit Verstappen with a ten-second penalty. In the days that followed quotes from Herbert regarding the decision appeared in various outlets, as the former driver weighed in on the penalty decision he helped make at Red Bull Ring.

In the announcement from the FIA it was noted that his dual roles were “incompatible:”

“It is with regret that we announce today that Johnny Herbert will no longer fulfil the position of F1 driver steward for the FIA,” it said in a statement.

“Johnny is widely respected and brought invaluable experience and expertise to his role. However, after discussion, it was mutually agreed that his duties as an FIA steward and that of a media pundit were incompatible. We thank him for his service and wish him well in his future endeavours.”

Herbert was a steward at eight races last season including the Mexico City Grand Prix (where Verstappen was given a pair of ten-second penalties) and the Australian Grand Prix when Fernando Alonso was assessed a 20-second penalty and points on his FIA Super License for “potentially dangerous” driving.

The move also comes as the FIA is facing criticism for changes to the International Sporting Code that could drivers find, suspended, or even docked Championship points for “misconduct.” Those regulations, released earlier this month, were intended to codify and standardize the penalties race stewards could hand out for driver behavior, but have led to more questions than answers from the F1 community.