WTCC boss Francois Ribeiro also supports the return of a driving standards adviser

WTCC promoter Francois Ribeiro has also stated that he believes that the return of an experienced driving standards adviser to the stewards would be a good move following former champion Rob Huff’s comments at the Hungaroring, when the Honda driver received a penalty after contact with Citroën’s Yvan Muller.

Muller himself backed the suggestion by his rival, taking the time to add that he believed it would have made no difference to Huff, as his penalty was still warranted.

In the meantime, the head of Eurosport Events, Francois Ribeiro, has also come out in favour of the position.

“The driving standards adviser is a good idea,” said Ribeiro to TouringCarTimes. “FIA-sanctioned championships such as Formula One and World Endurance Championship have it, so does Formula 3. That’s something the FIA needs to look at, it’s not the promoter’s responsibility.

“The question is who to appoint in that position. He needs to be available for the entire championship, so he can have track record of what happens between the drivers during a season. He needs to have a very long touring car experience, not single-seaters; and his experience needs to be not too fresh, because if he had any conflicts with the rest of the field, then he might not be too objective. Like I said, though, it’s an FIA decision.”

The last driver to regularly fill the position was 1989 and 1995 British Touring Car champion John Cleland in 2013, though a number of other drivers also took on the role between 2012 and 2013.