Steiner wants improvement in race management: 'System is flawed'

Guenther Steiner thinks Formula 1's race management still has a lot of work to do. In an interview with Autosport the Haas team boss indicated that there is still a lot of room for improvement.

According to Steiner, especially in the last few races of the season, there were situations in which the race control failed. Haas driver Kevin Magnussen saw no less than three times the so-called 'meatball flag': the orange-black flag indicating that there are loose parts on the car. When that flag is waved, the car has to come inside to have the parts repaired. According to Steiner, this has cost Haas a lot of valuable time and points. But a bigger problem according to Steiner is that not every team was treated so strictly.

'Austin was principled'

During the race in Austin, Haas objected to the race committee. After a collision with Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso's car was damaged. Although the Spaniard was able to finish the race, his mirror did become loose and a few laps later the mirror fell off the car. According to Haas, this was a violation of the same rule for which Haas had already been called in several times. The FIA initially agreed and gave Alonso a time penalty after the race, but reversed this decision when Alpine objected.

According to Steiner, this is exactly what was wrong with the race management. "We got penalised, and then they changed the rules. Nobody else ever got penalised, and the rule was changed. The protest in Austin was on principle: your system is flawed because the rules are not the same for everybody, and I think how it was handled from race control was not good."