Is the Haas team the punching bag of the FIA? It almost seems that way to Günther Steiner, because his team was again the “victim” of a penalty in Monza, which the team boss cannot explain and for which he has no sympathy. Kevin Magnussen was penalized at the Italian race for cutting corner 2 at the start and taking advantage of it according to the stewards.
Magnussen himself says that he was previously hit by Valtteri Bottas and therefore had to miss the corner. “But the guy who pushed Kevin out in that situation doesn’t get a penalty because it was an incident in the first round. Kevin was in the first round too, so why does he get a penalty?” Steiner wonders. “I do not understand that.”
The stewards had assessed that Magnussen, after cutting short, got back on track in front of Nicholas Latifi, although he was previously behind the Williams. Although Latifi overtook Haas in the course of the race, the stewards did not see this as giving up his position, but as a real overtaking maneuver by the Canadian.
Magnussen wonders about punishment
Magnussen criticizes that he was never told to return the position. “Knowing exactly where you are if someone pushes you out in Turn 1 can be quite difficult,” he says. “Now was I ahead or behind when I got hit? That can be difficult. But nobody said anything. So I was fine. And then the penalty came.”
But it was only pronounced quite late in the race, which surprised Magnussen: “It was strange because the penalty came far after the incident. I knew that I had two warnings for track limits and suddenly I got a penalty,” he said Dane.
“So I assumed that I had violated the track limits again. I couldn’t see where, but I accepted it,” he says. “But then I found out that it was for the incident in the first corner when I was hit by Bottas,” he argues with the five penalty seconds and the penalty point.
Although that didn’t have a major impact on the sport, Steiner is still angry that the commissioners have once again made a decision against his team. Even the two “fried egg” flags against Magnussen in Canada and Hungary annoyed the South Tyrolean and still annoys him today.
“We’re Not That Stupid”
For 12 years there was never any black and orange flag, and suddenly we’re getting two in a year,” he marvels. The black flag with the orange dot is shown when a driver is supposed to pit because his car is in is in an unsafe condition.In Magnussen’s case, the front wing was damaged.
But Steiner says: “There was never a risk that we would lose parts of the car. I don’t know where they dug up the rule again. But now they’re happy that they can use it again, especially against us,” he said Steiner.
It annoys him that Haas was not asked about the incidents, but was forced to drive into the pits. “We would never leave a car outside if it’s not safe. People have to understand that. We’re not that stupid,” he emphasizes. “If it’s not safe, we’re not stupid enough to leave it out.”
Steiner knows that something can always happen, “but we know exactly what’s going on. We know how the front wing is built and that it can’t fly away. If we think it’s dangerous, we bring it in ourselves. Nobody has to tell us that. We have more qualified people to say whether it’s safe or not than the FIA.”