Haas F1 did not bring a spare chassis to Melbourne, as the team had to send the one Mick Schumacher destroyed in Jeddah back to Europe. Günther Steiner, the team principal, admits that the situation is delicate, especially if an accident were to occur.
“The situation with spare parts is as expected following a big accident” Steiner said. “We have everything, but we don’t have an abundance of spare parts.”
“We sent the chassis back to Europe so it would be ready for Imola. We had to bring it here because of customs formalities, it had to be seized here and then it might be sent back to Europe from here. It is on the way back now.”
However, Steiner did not ask Schumacher or Kevin Magnussen to play it safe. He admits a share of risk of losing a car in the event of a new accident but wants to be confident.
“I think you can’t approach things differently. The drivers are aware of the situation, there is no spare chassis, but it can happen sometimes that there is no spare chassis. .”
“I’m not panicking and if something happens we’ll deal with it as it happens. You can’t say ‘go ahead and drive slowly’, that doesn’t make sense either, you just have to do not take additional risks if there is no need.”
