Stewards could face ban

(21-Jul-98) - The British Grand Prix race stewards could face a ban from
marshalling future F1 events following the series of errors that led to the
controversial finish to this year's race.

The FIA has called three stewards to a meeting of the World Council in
Paris later this month, to explain why they failed to apply the sport's
rules correctly. Michael Schumacher escaped punishment after he passed
Benetton's Alexander Wurz under a yellow caution flag.

They should have informed Schumacher's Ferrari team of a 10-second stop-go
penalty for the offence within 25 minutes of the incident. Instead they ran
over that time by six minutes, failed to post notice of the penalty on the
official timing screens, and then wrongly decided to add the penalty to the
race time.

These errors, which were admitted by the stewards, form the basis of
McLaren's appeal against the result which is also being heard next week.

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