(George) Russell, who is also a director of the drivers union, said permanent stewards who attend every F1 race should be looked into but Ben Sulayem claims the FIA does not have the money.

"But I don’t really sometimes understand. It’s always about the FIA. ‘Why are we doing this? Why are we doing that?’ But did anyone go to FOM?”

“I say it again and again – stewards do not grow on trees. It takes time to educate them. It takes time to train them. And then you evolve them, so we have a programme.

“I see the point about having them maybe like the Premier League where they [the referees] are paid. But we don’t have the money to do that.

“So we have to be also very careful of the way we are going. As long as they are committed, fair, and they are trained properly, then there will be stewards who come and go.”