Formula 1 stewards, as well as those in other world championships plus Formula 2 and Formula 3, will have new powers in 2026 to better review incidents and make more timely decisions.
As part of a comprehensive refresh by the FIA of its International Sporting Code (ISC), some tweaks have been made to extend stewards' powers in the hope of improving the review process.
One of the most interesting changes is an extra avenue being opened up for incidents to be looked at again in the days after stewards' decisions have been made.
Under the previous ISC, the only real scope for matters to be put back in front of the stewards was for competitors to lodge what was known as a right of review request.
This required a competitor, within 96 hours of an event finishing, to put forward a "significant and relevant new element" that it felt justified a further review of an incident taking place.
Such a right of review was successfully used by Williams after the Dutch Grand Prix to challenge the penalty, and licence points, that Carlos Sainz was handed for a collision with Liam Lawson.
For 2026, there has been a change of the process, with the ISC now laying down that it is no longer only possible for competitors to put forward a petition for review.
Instead, the stewards can now trigger a hearing themselves to review decisions they have made, if they find some new information has come to light since a verdict was reached.
A new article in the ISC states that: "In competitions forming part of an FIA world championship, the FIA Formula 2 championship or the FIA Formula 3 championship, the stewards may also decide to re-examine their decision on their own initiative, if they discover a significant and relevant new element which was unavailable to them at the time of their decision."
Another change is a new stewards' system for a panel to be appointed outside of an event.
Previously, stewards' decisions often had to wait for an event to be running so the designated officials could meet and make calls on outstanding matters.
From 2026, new powers have been laid out for race stewards to delegate authority to an 'out of competition' stewards' panel.
This will be available when matters are time-sensitive and when it would be inappropriate to delay any resolution until the next event. For example, this could mean stewards' hearings taking place in the summer shutdown or over the winter break.
The out of competition panel will comprise at least five members who have expertise in the relevant FIA championship they are ruling on.
The new ISC rules state that the hearings will take place via video conference but, if the subject matter is too complex, then it can be held in person if the relevant parties agree to bear costs.
Beyond the changes made to the ISC, the FIA stated after the recent signing of a new Concorde Agreement that extra funding had been secured to help invest in improving stewarding in the future.
