Former F1 star quit FIA steward role after TV backlash over Lewis Hamilton penalty

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Abu Dhabi, 2024 — Photo: © IMAGO

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Former F1 star quit FIA steward role after TV backlash over Lewis Hamilton penalty

F1 fans: chill out a bit, maybe?

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Wednesday 26 August 2026 08:15 Updated: 08:33

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Former F1 star Heinz Harald Frentzen has opened up on why he left his role as an FIA steward back in 2010.

The German racer recounted the story on Tuesday in reaction to an FIA statement condemning the online abuse of its stewards following Sunday's Dutch Grand Prix, particularly in response to a pair of penalties handed down to Franco Colapinto.

Frentzen revealed that at the 2010 European Grand Prix in Valencia, TV cameras focused on him in the stewards' office after Lewis Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty for overtaking the safety car after Mark Webber's spectacular crash. [Note: Frentzen refers to Hamilton's punishment as being a five-second penalty – he is mistaken, although a number of other drivers did receive five-second time penalties at the end of the race.]

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Hamilton's penalty was considered controversially light, with Fernando Alonso calling the race 'manipulated' and Ferrari describing the decision as a 'scandal'. With the TV choosing to focus on Frentzen, he became the target of Spanish Alonso fans' ire, who latched onto the belief that he and he alone was responsible for letting the Brit off the hook.

Those Spanish fans, it turned out, included his own mother - who he said spent the evening fuming with him when he visited her for dinner shortly afterward.

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"At the 2010 European Grand Prix in Valencia, I was a track marshal," he wrote on social media. [Note: Steward] "During the race, in a totally unusual move, the camera focused on me sitting in the office.

"When the five-second penalty for Lewis Hamilton crossing the safety car line was announced, everyone in Spain thought it had been my decision alone. The controversy was huge, especially among Spanish fans, who believed he deserved a much harsher punishment.

Frentzen revealed why he quit his steward role.

"I took the trip as a chance to visit my mother. But when I arrived for dinner that night, she wouldn't speak to me or serve me food. When I asked her what was wrong, she let loose: 'And why didn’t you give Hamilton a harsher penalty?'"

He went on to explain that the incident not only prompted F1 to stop showing individual stewards on TV, but also played a big part in him stepping down as a steward.

"During the race, the camera focused on me in the stewards' office, and everyone thought that the five-second penalty to Lewis Hamilton had been my decision. But it wasn't. We were a team of several stewards and the race direction.

"That incident was one of the reasons why Formula 1 stopped showing specific people on television. And for me, it was also a reason to leave the steward's job, because they believed that I was handing out the penalties."

F1 Lewis Hamilton FIA Fernando Alonso Heinz-Harald Frentzen