Günther Steiner stumbled across the word “layperson”. Because he is said to have insulted the commissioners after the Formula 1 race in Monaco, the Haas team boss had to answer to the FIA in Barcelona – and got away with a warning.
In the future, the South Tyrolean would like to be more careful with what he says, even if he dislikes the fact that things are always being interpreted into his statements. “I don’t even use the word I used anymore because someone else is making something out of what I’m supposed to have said,” he says.
He also felt misunderstood when he insulted the commissioners. He didn’t want to say that the inspectors weren’t professionals, just not professionals in the literal sense – because they’re not full-time employees. He didn’t want to accuse them of a lack of qualifications.
Steiner makes it clear: “I respect the people, the marshals and commissioners very much – both the people at the race track and everyone in life in general.” He is even one of the few who thanks the marshals and speaks to them when they come to the Haas garage. “Because I know what they’re doing.”
Haas garage popular meeting place
It was only in Monte Carlo that he had a ten-minute chat with a marshal from Monza on the starting grid about life itself. “He told me he likes doing it and that’s great. He drove from Milan to Monte Carlo for it. He just wanted to be with race cars and said that our garage was the best place to visit on a race weekend.” , according to Steiner.
He says the Haas mechanics are always polite, “because I always want our guys to treat everyone right – and I usually do.”
But now there is said affair about the word “laymen” – or “laymen”, as Steiner had used it to the commissioners. He maintains that he didn’t mean it the way it was understood. Steiner defends himself that English is not his mother tongue and that one can therefore sometimes use a word incorrectly.
“And then you have to say, okay, if it hurt people because they might not know the background of what I meant, then I apologize for it,” said Steiner. “I have no problem with that. You have to deal with it as an adult if someone could have misinterpreted it.”
Steiner sticks to it: Monaco penalty wrong
But what he remains with is his core position: he still thinks the penalty against Nico Hulkenberg in Monaco, which was the trigger for the statements, was wrong and would like the system to be changed. A sport at such a level must have a certain degree of continuity, he believes.
“I mean, I won’t choose the commissioners. I really don’t care,” he says. “For me it’s the system. There just has to be continuity.”
And that wasn’t the case for him in Monaco: “The record said there was no collision. How can you be punished for something you didn’t do? How can you have a collision offense if there was no collision? I think still that there was no continuity and that there are ways to make it better.”