F1 must fix penalty "lottery", Toro Rosso's Sainz believes

F1's stewarding process has been in the spotlight this year, with a debate growing over the number of regulations being put in place over wheel-to-wheel battling.

While some teams and drivers have called for there to be less interference from officials when incidents occur, Sainz believes a more consistent line-up of stewards would help solve the problem.

"This is what Formula 1 needs to understand, either to look at it incident by incident or to put a fixed rule," said Sainz, who was penalised for forcing Fernando Alonso off the road at the start of the Mexican GP.

"Nowadays it's difficult to know what will happen to you if you do a certain move that is a tiny bit on the limit.

"It's a bit of a lottery to get a penalty or not.

"I heard that [in Mexico] there were very similar situations with mine and Fernando's incident and that there were no penalties.

"Us drivers need to race with a very clear thing in mind when we overtake a guy.

"When we go [to the stewards] we need to know what they think about these rules."

While F1 has a cast of ex-drivers that take turns as stewards at each grand prix, Sainz believes the same officials are required for every race.

"I've said [F1 should have fixed stewards] my whole Formula 1 career," he added.

"It's understandable - humans are humans - you will have a different opinion to me, so every race there will be very different opinions.

"At the moment we never know what to expect about a move or after an accident.

"After seeing Fernando on the grass in Mexico do they give me a penalty or do they think it was a great move?

"[With fixed stewards] probably the criteria will be a lot closer every weekend.

"Maybe not always the same, but a lot closer."