Haas’ Guenther Steiner: “I’m very happy for the whole team to have scored double-points”

Guenther Steiner was delighted for the whole Haas F1 Team as they scored their first two-car points finish since the 2019 German Grand Prix in Sunday’s British Grand Prix.

Despite having started well outside the top ten after falling short in Saturday’s Qualifying session at Silverstone, both Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen drove strongly to bring home points, with the former finally breaking into the top ten after several near misses.

Steiner, the Team Principal at Haas, says it was not luck that brough them points at Silverstone as they were able to show they had a fast car all race long, and should they be able to qualify higher then scoring points would become a more regular occurrence.

“I’m very happy for the whole team to have scored double-points today,” said Steiner.  “We deserved it – it wasn’t by luck – starting from P17 and P19 and ending eighth and tenth, we couldn’t have wished for more.

“The cars were fast, the guys did a good job, the pit-stops were good, so what we need to do now is a very good qualifying and a very good race and then we’re back in the game.”

Steiner hopes the points scored by Schumacher will give him confidence going forward, but the German should not be put under any additional pressure to repeat the result in the upcoming races.

“I think it will give him a little boost, and just boost his confidence,” said Steiner to Motorsport.com.  “And it’s just going one hurdle. But what we have to watch now that the pressure now doesn’t come, and that if he doesn’t score points he gets critiqued.

“Some people don’t understand, and you cannot have it always how you think it is from outside. They are human beings, there are other 19 drivers, who are great drivers, and there are other nine teams which have good cars.

“It’s a sport. The expectation shouldn’t be that he scores every race and then if he doesn’t score, he’s being critiqued again. It’s put him on a pedestal and throw him down again, and we shouldn’t try to do that one.”

Steiner also admitted that Schumacher was not told to play it safe in his battle with Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen across the final laps of the race at Silverstone, leaving instead the decision in the hands of the driver to be sensible.

“No, he wasn’t told anything, they know what to do,” he insisted.  “When they fight and you start to talk to them you confuse them more than anything else.

“I trust my guys. I know he wanted his points, and he delivered. I think he was in control.”