Stoddie Straight: 'Ferrari in two weekends were robbed of P2'

The last race of the season in Abu Dhabi was not that captivating other than for the battle for second in the Constructors' Championship.

Sadly, Ferrari were robbed of second place in the championship by - yet again - more interference with decisions from the stewards that don't really make sense.

That incident with Sergio Perez and Lando Norris was a racing incident, that certainly didn't deserve a five second penalty that completely kicked Ferrari off the second place with Mercedes.

Over the course of the year, Ferrari was in a worse place than Mercedes. The fact that the drivers can't wait to get rid of the cars tells you all you need to know about it.

Carlos Sainz was also completely robbed in Las Vegas with that drain hole cover, which was completely force majeure. All the other teams would have been prepared to sign off on that, which could have been done, but we heard that Mercedes wouldn't and you need unanimity.

So I think for all the reasons and many, many others throughout the year, I think Ferrari deserved that second place in the championship and it was denied yet again by politics.

Stoddart: Too many policemen deciding outcome of races

Formula 1 racing should be pure racing where the best drivers in the world and the best cars in the world get to show their skills.

It doesn't need a bunch of policemen turning around and saying 'Well, this guy went off inch here, and this guy did this, and this guy did that.' The racing can be pure.

The stewards are there to do a job, most of them are ex-drivers and they're perfectly capable of knowing an infringement. You can't even see those white lines in the cockpit, so to actually change race results and change championships on that basis they should make it a financial penalty.

Instead of a five-second time penalty, fine the team $50,000 for it. Don't alter the course of the race, unless the infringement is so clear that anybody can tell that the result would be changed by that because there was a clear advantage.

I do accept how difficult this is, I do accept that it is controversial. We have a fantastic F1 World Championship now growing strength-to-strength and year-on-year.

But we're returning to the age where politics and stupidity decides races, as opposed to talent, and machinery.