"I need you to go and apologize on my behalf" - When an F1 steward wanted to apologize to Lewis Hamilton
Former FIA steward Tim Mayer recently shared an incident where he felt he needed to apologize to Lewis Hamilton. The former steward was on the F1 Nation podcast's recent episode as they recapped what happened in Austin last weekend. During the conversation, Mayer remembered one particular incident that involved the Mercedes driver.
The incident was from the 2016 F1 Spanish GP where Lewis Hamilton collided with Nico Rosberg at the start of the race. The collision took both drivers out of the race instantly. Talking about what happened afterward, Mayer said that Hamilton and Ron Meadows were in the stewards' room discussing the incident.
Lewis Hamilton questioned what he could have done to avoid the crash, and Mayer's explanation left him furious; the Brit then stormed out of the room. In retrospect, Mayer felt that he was a bit disrespectful in telling a world champion what he could have done in a car, and that he told Meadows to apologize to Hamilton on his behalf. He said:
“My biggest mistake ever as a steward was in 2016 [at the Spanish GP] – Hamilton and Rosberg started the race in Barcelona and they crashed. Both drivers were out. We bring them in afterward. And we decide no further action in the end. But Lewis says to me, ‘Well, what was I supposed to do?’ As a steward, somebody who’s never driven an F1 car, I started to tell him what I thought he ought to have done."
He continued:
“That wasn’t respectful of me, he got up, he was a bit mad and he slammed the door and walked out. Poor Ron Meadows, his team manager, went absolutely white in the face and said, ‘Oh, I’ll get him back to apologise’. I said ‘Actually, Ron, I need you to go and apologise on my behalf because it was a stupid thing for me to do’. It’s maybe not my stupidest thing as a steward but I’m not going to tell you the other ones!”
Looking back at what happened between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at the 2016 F1 Spanish GP
The infamous crash between the two Mercedes drivers took place in the 2016 F1 Spanish GP. Nico Rosberg was on a seven-race win streak coming into Barcelona and Hamilton was on the backfoot in the championship.
Lewis Hamilton started the race in pole position but was jumped early by Rosberg. It was in the sequence after the first turn that Rosberg encountered an issue with the power settings.
The power settings meant Lewis Hamilton was able to line up his teammate for a pass. When Rosberg moved to defend himself, it ended up putting Hamilton on the grass, losing control and hence colliding with his teammate.
With both Mercedes drivers out of the race, it was Max Verstappen on his Red Bull debut who prevailed and won his first ever F1 race.