It's now been a full year since 500cc-race-winner-turned-TV-pundit Simon Crafar took over from multiple world champion Freddie Spencer as the FIM chief steward, the arbiter of justice in MotoGP.
Crafar's arrival was heralded as bringing an important change of mentality after years of criticism of his predecessor. Is that what MotoGP's got?
In short, yes. While his decisions might not always have been popular (especially with some racers and team bosses), Crafar has, after 22 race weekends, brought about much of the change that was hoped for. It has absolutely been a successful substitution.
Criticism of Spencer started almost as soon as he took on the role, thanks to the way in which he managed the decision-making process. Riders - both those being punished and those who had been on the receiving end of rough riding - got little in the way of feedback from him. That, in turn, made it very difficult for riders to know how they should conduct themselves and where the limit was.
However, a bigger problem became clear as time went on: Spencer's inconsistency in handing out punishments. That absolutely confounded not just fans and the media but even the riders and teams involved.
It meant that Spencer's situation eventually became simply untenable. Racers would sometimes leave his office openly insulting the stewards in a way that would never be accepted in any other sport, and journalists' requests to speak to the stewards to help understand their decision-making were flatly rejected.
Given not just Crafar's background working in the media (as MotoGP's world feed pitlane reporter) but also his friendliness and the respect he has in the paddock, news of the switch for 2025 was immediately welcomed. And, so far, that reception has been justified given the way in which the stewards room has operated under his management.
"First of all, I am happy with the new stewards," explained Trackhouse Aprilia racer Raul Fernandez unprompted at the Argentine Grand Prix, only a few rounds into Crafar's tenure and after getting penalised for contact with Enea Bastianini.
"You can talk with them, and they can explain their point of view, which is nice. You are not speaking with a wall."
And, it turns out, with better communication and more back and forth both officially and unofficially, comes better understanding of how the stewards react in situations and where exactly the line between hard racing and unacceptable conduct lies (or where they deem it to be).
Crafar's policy since the start has been to let racers be racers, something that fundamentally was a request from the riders themselves even as they complained about people going unpunished during Spencer's time in charge; an issue that largely arose from the inconsistency in which penalties would be handed out.
We've seen many more incidents that in the past would have brought about a penalty last year go unquestioned in 2025, as riders are given more latitude to race like they want to (and many of the fans want them to too).
There have, undoubtedly, been missteps by Crafar and his panel of stewards as they learn the ropes, of course. But most of those have come not from hammering riders with unfair punishments for riding that a week prior would have escaped without sanction, and have instead been from giving them a little too much leniency, a situation that is altogether better.
In fact, it's fair to say that the main thing that has hindered Crafar so far is not his own decision-making but MotoGP's rather rigid punishment matrix that means certain actions bring about certain sanctions on a rising ladder - but, crucially, without taking into account other incidents on different ladders.
That's why, for example, Franco Morbidelli managed to survive 2025 without a serious punishment despite being very much a repeat offender in multiple different riding categories.
That's consequence of MotoGP losing its penalty points system following the divisive events of the end of the 2015 season, and fixing that situation is perhaps Crafar's next challenge with a year's experience under his belt.
