David Coulthard believes that the reprimand given to Nick Heidfeld following the Bahrain Grand Prix is evidence of an overdue toughening-up of race stewarding.

Heidfeld was slapped on the wrist for forcing Coulthard off the racetrack as they battled for position on lap 15 – even though the pair did not make contact and Coulthard was able to rejoin the circuit without difficulty.

The official response contrasted starkly with the leniency shown to Takuma Sato in Bahrain two years ago, when the Japanese driver escaped censure for making hard contact with Ralf Schumacher at the same spot.

Coulthard hopes that the recent appointment of a permanent chief steward in Formula 1 will ensure a clear – and consistently applied – code of conduct.

Speaking at Thursday’s press conference in Sepang, he said: “It’s interesting, actually, because it is one of the things we’ve been asking for for a number of years in the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers Association): to have a steward that represents all the grands prix, to try and have some consistency.

“If you remember two years ago, (Takuma) Sato took Ralf (Schumacher) off at turn two and for me it was quite clear that Sato was in the wrong.

“And because at that time everyone was going through the ‘it’s great to have a Japanese in a quick car’ phase, they were all praising him for being a racer.

“But he effectively drove Ralf off the track and you couldn’t do that at somewhere like Monaco, for instance, where you don’t have the run-off.

“It’s quite clearly a non-contact sport and if you look at what happened in Bahrain, Nick didn’t touch with me, but I ran off the circuit because I could, to maintain my position.

“And the stewards felt he was in the wrong because he was not alongside me and therefore I had the line for the corner.

“So, what I’m saying is: same incident, a couple of years apart, and a different view.

“But I think what we’re going to see now is that there’s a permanent steward and we will see a lot more consistency.

“Clearly the stewards were a lot harder on Nick, potentially, than we would have seen in previous years, which is good if it’s consistent from race to race, because we just need to know how far we can push it.”

A lack of consistency and arbitrary decision-making by race officials have been perennial gripes among F1 teams and drivers.

The FIA has appointed Tony Scott-Andrews as a permanent chief steward this year in order to address these concerns.

Well I have to agree with  David here... lets just hope that as happened in previous years, the stewards  KEEP this up  even if your  surname is Schumacher !!! and also  lets hope that Takumo ( kamakasi) Sato  also gets dealt with  properly if he drives like he did a few times over the last couple of years