Guenther Steiner raises doubts over FIA’s British GP explanation with safety car restart theory

Guenther Steiner has questioned the decision-making behind the British GP restart controversy, claiming confusion at race control may have led to a situation where officials were forced into a difficult position.

The former Haas team principal hit out at the ending to the British GP, where the race was not allowed to restart on the final lap due to a rule stating the action can't get back underway after a full safety car for a full lap after lapped cars are allowed to unlap themselves.

Fans in the stands booed as the drivers finished the race behind the safety car, with Charles Leclerc taking victory from George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. The controversial ending came five years after Abu Dhabi 2021, where Max Verstappen passed Hamilton after the race was resumed on the final lap following a safety car.

On the penultimate lap of the British Grand Prix, a message displayed that the safety car would come into the pits, allowing one lap of racing at the end of the race. However, the race finished behind the safety car and the FIA in a statement said "the message was displayed erroneously due to a software error".

Speaking on the Red Flags podcast, Steiner raised doubt over the error being down to a software error, stating: "I don't know this software problem, if that is real. I think they said, 'oh, let's restart the race', and somebody said 'you cannot do this because the rules say you cannot do this'. Then they said 'oh I'm out of here now, just stop everything, I don't want to embarrass myself'."

Steiner added that there should be a campaign for full-time stewards to be introduced in Formula 1, stating that they would better help the race director in avoiding issues like at Silverstone.

He said: "We need to start a campaign soon. You know what I'm always saying. Full-time stewards that work on a plan. This is not to blame the stewards, because the stewards had nothing to do with this, it's the race director. But if the race director would have permanent stewards, the permanent stewards would help him to find ways around not to look like we did again in Silverstone.