Jackie Stewart has backed up Lewis Hamilton by urging F1 bosses to give greater power to the Grand Prix Drivers' Association.
Three-time world champion Stewart is a former President of the GPDA, that was founded in 1961 with the aim of improving safety standards in the sport. The group famously instigated a driver's strike at the 1982 South African Grand Prix before disbanding, but reformed after the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
Hamilton, recently asked for GPDA members to be more involved in the decision making in F1, saying: "We have a responsibility, we have a great platform, each and every one of us, collectively, and there are lots of things F1 has to push forward on action-wise. It says we are doing a lot of things, sustainability and all of those things, but we need to make sure we are pushing through and doing our absolute best and maybe the GPDA can have a role in that."
And the outspoken Stewart has echoed his sentiments, claiming the body was “much more powerful” when he was in charge. “I was the President of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, when the GPDA was much more powerful than it is today by the way," he told Express Sport .
Now the organisation has little say in the governance of the sport, a notion the Scot disagrees with. “I think that's wrong. I think we should have more influence," he added.
As well as the strike in South Africa, the GPDA was also famous for boycotts of several events including the 1969 Belgian Grand Prix and the 1970 German Grand Prix. Drivers also pushed to eventually have Nurburgring removed from the calendar after 1976.
The members still meet at most Grand Prix races but the group now seemingly had little power over the key decisions in the sport. And the GPDA outlined their discontent with a letter to F1 bosses back in 2016.
Three years later, Hamilton publicly argued that drivers should have been having more of a say in the new regulations designed to overhaul the sport. He said F1 were allowing the regulations to be decided by “people with power."
The rules came into fore this season, with a number of drivers - including Hamilton himself - struggling to get to grips with things. Mercedes in particular were plagued by the issue of porpoising after failing to adapt their W13 cars accordingly.
