Haas boss Guenther Steiner believes Formula 1 rules should not be changed to mitigate Red Bull’s advantage over their rivals as it would put the sports integrity in question.
“The show is secondary…”
With Red Bull dominating the opening three races of the 2023 season, seemingly well ahead of their competitors, there have been worries expressed that a year of domination from the team could potentially put fans off the sport.
While there have been calls for Red Bull’s advantage to be minimised, Haas boss Guenther Steiner believes this should not happen. Steiner believes the intra team battle between Verstappen and Perez keeps the racing at the front interesting and also expresses that he believes the other teams are capable of catching up to Red Bull before the end of the season.
“The sport is the main thing we have to have,” Steiner said, speaking with Motorsport.com. “The show is secondary, but I think it will sort itself out and then still we have got a good race going on in the front now with Checo and Max, that doesn’t seem to be without sparks, without show.
“There is some show element in that one now. But I’m not worried that other people will catch up.”
“I wouldn’t say they’ll keep that advantage…”
He continued to defend the current Formula 1 regulations, which were introduced to bring the field closer together and improve on track racing. While he admits that Red Bull currently has a sizeable pace advantage, he was quick to point out they also have limited development time due to their positioning last season.
“I would say they work,” he said of the regulations. “Obviously at the moment Red Bull has an advantage, but I wouldn’t say they’ll keep that advantage now for the next 20 races.
“I’m not so sure about that because everybody will catch up, and hopefully we find out how Red Bull came to this advantage and we can copy it, or do something similar.
“Everybody will be working hard and then you never have to forget Red Bull has got the penalty they got last year, they can do less development in the wind tunnel this year so they cannot move a lot ahead anymore in theory.
“So you have to see. But they did a fantastic job. And therefore, you cannot blame the regulations for that. Because if somebody does a better job than anybody else, they should get the advantage.”
“We shouldn’t jump to a conclusion yet.”
He went on to slam the idea that regulation changes could be made to alleviate Red Bull’s advantage as unfair to the Milton Keynes based defending champions.
“I mean it’s a voting system, you cannot make moves just because somebody is faster than somebody else, that’s not fair.
“If they find that something is not legal, they can adjust the rules. Safety is always a concern. But I think we need to find out in a few races what is going on really. I think we shouldn’t jump to a conclusion yet.”
“We will find out every race…”
Steiner also discussed the close and unpredictable midfield battle which Haas are involved in. As with many, Steiner was unable to predict who will come out on track, claiming that any one teams advantage seems to be circuit dependant.
“It will depend on the race track configuration, who is in the front and who’s back,” he said. “There will be cars that will be better on high-speed courses, there will be some which are better like in Monte Carlo, but we don’t know yet.
“So we will find out every race there will be some swapping around, in my opinion.”
