German Grand Prix – Haas’ team boss Guenther Steiner says that he was left astonished watching on as his two drivers made contact on track again at Hockenheim.
Haas’ team boss Guenther Steiner was almost amused as he explained his frustration with his drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen after Sunday’s race at Hockenheim.
Following the two drivers making contact that resulted in both of them retiring early from the British Grand Prix a fortnight ago, Grosjean and Magnussen made contact again at Hockenheim. Fighting over P10, Magnussen drove up the inside of Grosjean at the hairpin. With Grosjean turning in, the pair clashed wheels but were able to continue.
Grosjean held on to finish P9, with Magnussen claiming the final points position in P10.
“I was surprised after Silverstone, they did it again!” said Steiner afterwards.
“I need to tell them event by event, lap by lap, what to do. I haven’t seen the incident in the replay, i saw it once on TV obviously. I need to look at it and come to conclusions.”
There have been rumours circulating that, after the British race, Steiner has made a call to replace Romain Grosjean at the team after the summer break. However, these are unconfirmed.
Steiner, going on to explain the team’s race, said that their double points finish doesn’t really improve his mood as he knows that it was down to circumstances rather than achieved on merit: “We are not quick on the track and we don’t need any more distractions or loss of points by running into each other or into anybody else.”
“We will regroup and go again, today wasn’t good. We finished P9 and P10 because lots of people retired and not from merit of speed. We are fully aware of that.”
“I am not standing here saying everything is fantastic. Our speed wasn’t there.”
Haas, for the second weekend in a row, were running a split specification on their cars, with Romain Grosjean running an Australia-spec VF19 and Magnussen in a fully updated car. Steiner says that the German race hasn’t really answered any questions for them: “Not that many people can be so quick in qualifying, going down in pace in the race. The only thing you can do in this situation is to keep on working and trying to find out why. There is no magic to it. Today, i think we are lucky we kept on the track and finished 9th and 10th which is the least of the points.. thats the only highlight of the day.”
