Who'd be a referee, eh? On a football field, you spend 90 minutes being abused by fans and players; then every pundit takes a pop, questioning your competence with super-slowmotion reverse-angle replays.

In F1, the 'referees' have dozens of cameras and access to every radio exchange… but still nobody's happy. If they show leniency, they're immediately blasted for inconsistency; when they dish out a penalty, others say they don't understand what goes on in the cockpit. But who are these men with the power to decide the world championship? The stewards are called into action when an incident is reported to them by the race director (sometimes after being alerted by a team), or when they themselves refer something to the race director to determine if it should be investigated. And the onus is on them to act quickly.

“There's no more sitting until midnight,” adds Donnelly. “The stewards look at the evidence and at some point I say, 'Can we take a decision?' Someone will propose something and then either they'll agree, or propose something different. We haven't had to vote all season.”

If the procedure's been speeded up so much, why did it take 10 laps to serve Nico Rosberg and Robert Kubica with drivethrough penalties for refuelling when the pitlane was closed in Singapore - even though they were open-and-shut cases?

“When it comes to refuelling under Safety Car conditions, after the incident has been reported to us by race director Charlie Whiting, we need to obtain confirmation from the timekeepers and pitlane observers that an infraction actually occurred,” explains Alan Donnelly.

“A team may put the fuel hose on the car but deliver no fuel, in which case no rules have been broken. While we were waiting for that confirmation in Singapore, the incident involving Massa's pitstop occurred. Thanks to video playback we were able to begin analysing it immediately, but it meant the other penalties had to wait.” Nevertheless, F1's regulations are famously opaque and leave room for interpretation - or what sceptics might term manipulation…

Alan Donnelly: “When team principals want the rules to be clearer, Max always says, 'Fine, you write them and send them to us.' So far, nobody's been able to do it.” Graham Stoker: “It's never black and white. It involves judgement.”

AD: “If something is contentious, we ask the race director for precedents. In Hamilton's incident at Spa, there was a precedent from Suzuka '05: Alonso passed Klien, re-passed him too quickly and had to cede the advantage properly several laps later.”

GS: “In reality, someone's got to make a decision. There are always shades of grey.”

AD: “If drivers or team managers want to look at an incident and understand our thinking behind it, then we're happy to share that with them. Someone raised an issue about the start of the race in Singapore, so the managers involved looked at the incident with us again, from two angles, and they said it was totally correct no action was taken.”

That issue of accountability is important when it comes to giving the public confidence they're watching a fair process; post-season, the FIA confirmed that, among other measures, video footage used to make decisions will be posted on their website from 2009. Stewarding this season was strict; in football, the best analogy would be to a niggly referee who whistles for every foul rather than letting the game flow. But it's a big leap from 'strict' to 'unfair' or 'biased'...

At 12:00 on the dot, Alan Donnelly returns to Fuji's stewards' room. “I've checked with Charlie, and he's got nothing for us. That's it, gentlemen. Thank you.”

The room's been quiet throughout the session. No calls from Race Control - nothing to investigate. And no recriminations. Until race day…

This article is reprinted with permission from F1 Racing's December 2008 issue