Derek Warwick becomes the second British race steward to fall foul of the FIA as he is suspended for “unauthorised comments” to a gambling company.
Before the start of the season, Johnny Herbert was dismissed as the FIA deemed his role as a race steward “incompatible” with his other role as a media pundit. Warwick, however, has only been dropped for this one race.
“Following recent unauthorised media comments, the FIA has taken the decision to suspend Derek Warwick from his duties as driver steward for this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix,” said the FIA in a statement.
“He will be replaced by Enrique Bernoldi, who will be officiating from the Remote Operations Centre in Geneva for the remainder of the event.
“After discussion, Derek acknowledges that his comments were ill-advised in his role as an FIA steward and has apologised. Derek will resume his duties as a steward in the forthcoming Austrian Grand Prix.”
In the aftermath of the Spanish Grand Prix, Warwick, in an ‘interview’ with the gambling firm, was critical of a number of drivers.
“Should he have done what he did, in Turn 5 with George Russell? Absolutely not,” he said of Max Verstappen. “Did he get a penalty for it? Yes,” he added. “I’m not condoning it, I’m not saying it’s right, it’s absolutely wrong, and the FIA quite rightly gave him a penalty.
“I think they got it about right,” he added. “I think a lot of people would say he should have got a ban as an example to young karters, and they are probably right, but I feel the penalty was spot on.
“You’ve got to look at each individual incident on their own merit. I thought it was very questionable. It’s not what I like to see.”
In addition to claiming that Yuki Tsunoda has been a “disaster” for Red Bull, Warwick opined that Lewis Hamilton is probably considering retirement following a difficult debut with Ferrari.
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