Steiner totally disagrees with Horner's plan: "They'll manipulate our performance"

Christian Horner came up with a plan last Friday to keep the smaller teams in Formula 1 alive by offering them cars from top teams. A team like Haas F1 would then drive the 2020 car from Ferrari next season to save costs and get through the corona crisis. However, team boss Guenther Steiner of Haas F1 doesn't think it's such a good idea for Horner.

The three top teams already supply many parts to smaller teams, but they still have to spend a lot of money on the development of the parts they don't buy from the top teams. So Horner's solution is that, for example, Mercedes, Red Bull Racing and Ferrari sell their complete car to the smaller teams. According to the head of Red Bull Racing, this is the way for smaller teams to be competitive at a low price.

Steiner not even with plan Red Bull team boss

"That plan is not really relevant anymore, because all teams have already found a way to work", counters Steiner in conversation with the Formula 1 cafe at Ziggo Sport. The Italian doesn't think it solves the problem. "To be honest; we don't need extra money, but we want the big teams to work on a smaller budget. That way we can be more competitive."

With Horner's plan, the top teams could have too much influence on the smaller teams. "We would then be customer teams and so the larger teams would actually manipulate our performance, as we would be driving a one-year-old car", Steiner believes. "They will always stay ahead of us. With a budget cap, we still don't reach the budgets of the larger teams, but we are closer." 

Current Haas F1 car faster than previous Ferrari

Moreover, the 55-year old top man doesn't think Haas F1 would be closer to the top teams. According to Steiner, the Haas F1 car of 2020 is faster than the Ferrari car of 2019. "I don't think that car is faster than this year's car."