Guenther Steiner admitted it was a frustrating feeling to see the stewards in Singapore force Kevin Magnussen to pit to replace a damaged front wing last Sunday, with the stop all but ending his chances of scoring points.
It is not the first time during the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season that the Haas F1 Team driver has suffered with front wing damage that has resulted in him being shown the black and orange flag, which necessitates a trip to the pit lane for repairs.
Steiner, the Team Principal at Haas, believes it was an unjustified call by the stewards, feeling that the wing damage was only superficial and not dangerous in any way.
“When something like this happens in the race, it’s very frustrating and obviously I get very upset about it because first of all, we put ourselves in this position and then we got help from the FIA to be put into an even worse position, having to come in to change a part which is not a safety issue,” said Steiner.
“If I didn’t feel emotional about it, I shouldn’t be sitting here in my opinion. I care, I care about the team and there were two instances which went against us. One inflicted by ourselves and one inflicted by somebody outside which was completely unjust.
“On how we recover, we just have to rethink about what we can do better next time. I think we shouldn’t have put ourselves in that position, but time heals all wounds and we’ll be ready for Japan.”
Despite missing out on points at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, Steiner felt it was a good weekend for Haas, particularly in Qualifying where Magnussen qualified ninth and Mick Schumacher thirteenth, the latter experiencing Singapore for the first time.
“The entire race weekend, I think it was one of the best, or the best, executed weekends this year,” Steiner said. “Starting on Friday, we didn’t have any issues because we knew we had to stay out there to get laps for the drivers so they could learn the track.
“On Saturday with the changing conditions, we couldn’t have done anything different or better. It was the same on the choices of tyre and the strategy on Sunday.
“Going back, we would do the same, the only thing we would change would be to get Mick in a lap later as we know now that there would’ve been a safety car but of course we didn’t know that then. It was very good and it gives us confidence that we can handle difficult weather situations.”
“We can still fight for seventh”
The Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team’s double points score and a single point for Scuderia AlphaTauri means the battle for seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship in now a three-way battle with only three points between them all with just five races remaining.
Steiner says he is confident that Haas can come out on top of this battle, believing that their car is just as good as the ones from their major rivals at this point of the season.
“I think if we can do a good job, all of us do a good job, we can still fight for seventh,” he said. “We were in a position to score points in Singapore, we just messed it up.
“We need to look at ourselves and at what happened, and then get better from there. I think in the races coming up, our car is not worse than the others we are competing with.”
This weekend sees the welcome return to the Suzuka International Racing Course for the Japanese Grand Prix for the first time since 2019, with the previous two races being cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Steiner believes the track is amongst his favourites on the Formula 1 schedule, with the fans showing a lot of passion, and he hopes the VF-22 will suit the figure-of-eight layout this weekend.
“For me, it’s one of my favourite circuits as it’s a cool race track and the fans are so passionate about it,” Steiner added. “I think our car should be good at this track, we just have to execute.
“I think it’s very good that we get back to Japan, I really like it.”