Haas team principal Guenther Steiner insisted that he doesn’t regret submitting a right of review request, even though it was ultimately rejected by the stewards.
Photo credit: MoneyGram Haas F1 Team
The Haas team took action after analysing onboard camera footage of various cars at Turn 6 during the United States Grand Prix and concluding that several drivers—including both Williams drivers, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll—got away with persistently exceeding track limits throughout the race.
While the appeal itself was dismissed, the stewards had to concede that “the CCTV camera for turn six did not meet that standard as it did not cover the apex of the corner.” In their official documentation, they urged the FIA to find solutions to improve the standard of policing track limits in the future, which gave Steiner some satisfaction.
Speaking to the media in Las Vegas, he defended the decision to pursue a right of review request.
“Why would I regret it? I don’t regret it.
“Obviously we were conscious that it will be difficult to make it stick, but at least we tried.
“And what came out is that the stewards actually said the FIA is doing a bad job. And I think that’s what was done.
“We didn’t get anything out of it, but you have to try, in life you have to fight. You just can’t say, ‘Oh I do nothing.’”
The stewards also noted that Haas should have protested right after the United States Grand Prix had concluded, rather than waiting to seek a right of review request weeks later.
Steiner disagreed with that view, saying, “What they should have done is make sure that they had a CCTV camera on turn six so I don’t have to protest.
“I mean, let’s go that way, that is number one. They should make sure that they’ve got the means in place to check their own regulation, not me sitting at home, or Aston Martin checking what they are doing. That is not the team’s job.
“And in half an hour, we didn’t have the time to go through all that stuff, because that is not our job.
“We are not the governing body, we are a race team, we pay somebody to do this job—the FIA.”
Steiner jokingly added: “And then again, a protest costs you a lot of money, a right of review costs very little. You need to be smart as well!”
Despite the rejection, Steiner maintained that Haas’s probe into how track limit violations are monitored and penalised is significant for Formula 1 as a whole.
“I mean, it’s worth it. I think that’s worth it for whole of F1, not only for us, because everybody agreed with that, but nobody did anything about it. I think we are helping to develop Formula 1 rules.”
Asked whether he believed the hearing was fair, Steiner responded, “A fair hearing will be that they will accept the right of review and we could review it properly.
“They didn’t want to go there, for obvious reasons. And that’s it, end of story. But as long as we move forward and get better for the future, that’s already a win.”
