FIA steward explains incidents: “Sebastian Vettel’s move was intentional, Max Verstappen’s only partly”. FIA steward Derek Warwick commented on the incidents.

What the former driver said
One of the topics at the Canadian GP will undoubtedly be about Max Verstappen having to be very careful with any incidents that could cost him penalty points on his Super License. The Red Bull driver is just one point away from triggering a race suspension, and in Montreal and Austria he must stay out of trouble if he wants to avoid a race ban like Kevin Magnussen experienced last year, when he missed the Azerbaijan GP in Baku.

At the stewards’ panel in Canada, the ‘driver’ role will be played by former British driver Derek Warwick, who has served as an FIA steward for race weekends for years. Warwick, interviewed by the Dutch betting site Plejmo, disagreed with those who claimed that the 10-second penalty given to Max Verstappen was too ‘soft’ for a move that Nico Rosberg and Johnny Herbert described as deserving a black flag.

Warwick compared Max Verstappen’s spin on George Russell to Sebastian Vettel’s move on Lewis Hamilton at the 2017 Azerbaijan GP, when after suffering a ‘brake test’ from Lewis Hamilton under Safety Car, Sebastian Vettel pulled alongside and hit Lewis Hamilton with a spin. Vettel was punished with a 10-second stop-and-go penalty on that occasion. Max Verstappen, instead, was penalized with a 10-second penalty that dropped him to tenth place in the final classification. “I think everyone needs to realize that if you’re a driver used to winning like Max, it’s very hard when things go wrong in a race that on paper, with three pit stops, looks like one you can win. And we all know he is a winner — Warwick said — Should he have done what he did at turn 5 with George Russell? Absolutely not. Did he receive a penalty for it? Yes. Vettel was given a 10-second stop-and-go, but he intentionally hit Lewis. Max Verstappen instead dives inside Russell and then tries to steer left, but momentum carries him into the Mercedes driver. It remains an absolutely wrong move and the FIA rightly handed a penalty. Those who think a harsher penalty was needed to send a message to young kart drivers are probably right, but in my opinion, the penalty given was appropriate.”