Despite Being Abused by Lewis Hamilton Fans, Derek Warwick Reveals He Never Supported Mercedes Star’s Punishment

Following the controversial penalty given to Lewis Hamilton during the Belgian GP Sprint race, FIA steward Derek Warwick was subject to widespread online criticism with fans accusing him of making a racist comment back in 2016. Amidst accusations of the penalty being biased and racially motivated, Warwick revealed that he was one of the few people who did not agree with the penalty given to Hamilton.

On lap 6 of 11 during the Sprint Race, Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez raced wheel to wheel into turn 15, vying for P4. However, with the damp conditions on track, Hamilton drifted wide in the middle of the corner and collided with Perez, with his left front tire eating away a chunk of the sidepod of the RB19 of Perez. The Mexican had his race completely ruined and Hamilton received a five-second time penalty for the collision.

Fans immediately pointed out that Derek Warwick, one of the people in the panel of stewards who penalized Hamilton, had allegedly made a racist comment in 2016 when he claimed that Max Verstappen was ‘next great white hope’. As a result, fans questioned whether Warwick was really capable of making neutral decisions, especially when he was so openly biased toward Verstappen.

Derek Warwick explains his involvement in the Lewis Hamilton penalty

The panel of stewards consists of four people, who, in Belgium, were Loïc Bacquelaine – a Formula 3 and Porsche Supercup steward, Tim Mayer – a Motorsport organiser from FIA, Mathieu Remmerie – a Formula 2 and Formula 3 steward, and lastly, Derek Warwick – a former F1 driver and World Sportscar champion. However, according to Warwick, not all the stewards were on board with the opinion that Hamilton was at fault for the turn 15 incident.

Following the Grand Prix weekend, Warwick spoke to Auto Motor und Sport regarding his involvement in the controversial penalty. As per GP Fans, Warwick said, “You know, there are four stewards here, but not everyone was in favor of it.” Quite like Hamilton, Warwick also believed that the whole collision was nothing more than a racing incident.

Hamilton was backed up by other prominent people including Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle. The British presenter claimed that the penalty was not justified at all as Hamilton cannot simply evaporate from the track.

On the other hand, F1 tech expert Sam Collins broke down the whole incident during the post-sprint show and explained why he feels that the penalty was somewhat justified.

Hamilton not too bothered with the penalty

While fans kept up with the online abuse aimed at Warwick, Hamilton himself was not at all bothered by the whole ordeal. While the Briton maintained that he was innocent and the penalty was not justified, he also mentioned that he didn’t care much about it since the sprint race offers very few points either way.

Following the race, Hamilton was demoted from P4 to P7, managing to bring home only 2 points instead of 5. He said, “It doesn’t really make a huge difference. 4th or 7th in the Sprint race. You don’t get a lot of points.”

What helped Hamilton even more was the fact that as per the new Sprint format, the finishing order of the sprint race does not determine the starting position of the feature race. Hamilton had a much better main race on Sunday finishing P4 behind Verstappen, Perez, and Leclerc. Overall, Mercedes are slowly clawing back the deficit to the top teams.