FIA Race Steward Derek Warwick has explained that 7-time World Champion Michael Schumacher came close to being disqualified from Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix for his vigorous and dangerous chop on former team-mate Rubens Barrichello.
With Barrichello having pitted late in the race, the Williams was forced towards the pit wall before just sneaking through at the start of Lap 66. The incident has since resulted in a 10-place grid drop for Mercedes pilot Schumacher, who has since apologised via his website, at the next Grand Prix in Belgium.
“Throwing a black flag would have shown a better example to our young drivers,” former driver Warwick explained to BBC Radio 5 live, “but by the time we got the video evidence we ran out of time and had to do it retrospectively.
“We interviewed Rubens and Michael and it was kind of disappointing how Michael handled it, so we had no option but to give him a 10-place penalty. If we had enough laps (we would have been able to disqualify him) but you have to have video evidence and make sure all four stewards are in agreement.
“We felt a 10-place penalty is a big penalty to carry for Spa; it kind of puts him out of the race at Spa and hopefully he will learn from that and remember that the new stewards will not tolerate that driving.”
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Rubens Barrichello
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Derek Warwick
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