100% Seb’s fault, says F1 steward Warwick

DEREK WARWICK may have gone from poacher to gamekeeper, but the driver-turned-race steward lambasted Sebastian Vettel for his Azerbaijan antics. Vettel deliberately drove into the side of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes but pointed the finger at the Briton, accusing him of driving erratically and causing the initial collision. That doesn’t wash with Warwick (below), a veteran of 146 grands prix from 1981 to 1993. ‘As leader, Lewis had every right to control the pace,’ said Warwick, 62. ‘He wasn’t erratic, he kept a constant throttle and never used the brakes, so he was within his rights. ‘Vettel thought he was about to go and wanted to anticipate that to get a run on him. Obviously Seb lost it and the rest is history. ‘If he dug into his heart and answered the question properly, he would say it was 100 per cent his fault. ‘Seb didn’t cover himself in glory. What he did was petulant, it was pure anger and very surprising from a four-time world champion.’ Warwick has been an FIA race steward since 2010 and was due to officiate in the Azeri capital. He withdrew a fortnight ago due to family commitments, but revealed he got a message from fellow steward Danny Sullivan, who was part of the weekend’s four-man panel. ‘It just read, “I bet you’re glad you’re not here mate!”.’ Sullivan and colleagues Paul Gutjahr, Enzo Spano and Anar Shukurov gave a 10-second stop-go penalty to Vettel. Yet Warwick said punishments may need reviewing. ‘I’m not sure they’ve got a penalty in the book that they could give him, other than exclusion from the race, and I question whether the event was strong enough for that. They gave him the strongest penalty they could and he also got three penalty points on his licence.’ And with nine points in the last 12 months, Vettel is three away from a one-race ban.