Günther Steiner, director of Haas, believes that Formula 1 should not change its regulations in order to reduce Red Bull’s advantage over other teams.
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Red Bull dominated the first three Grands Prix of the 2023 season, with two victories from Max Verstappen in Bahrain and Australia and one for his teammate Sergio Perez in Saudi Arabia. And while some observers fear that a second consecutive year of domination will erode Formula 1’s popularity, Günther Steiner believes that the sporting aspect of the World Championship must always take priority over the desire to create a great spectacle for the fans. .
Asked by Motorsport.com on this subject, the director of Haas explains: “What we have to make sure we have mainly is sport. The show is secondary, but I think it will sort itself out. We still have a great fight ahead between Checo [Pérez] and Max, she doesn’t seem to be without sparks, without a show. There’s a bit of spectacle in this [lutte]. But I’m not worried that other people [équipes] will overtake them.”
According to Steiner, there is no need to change the regulations to put the brakes on Red Bull: “I would say that [les règles] are working. It’s obvious that Red Bull has an advantage right now, but they’re not going to keep that advantage for the next 20 races because everyone is going to catch up. Hopefully we find out how Red Bull came to have that advantage and we can copy them or do something similar.”
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal, Haas F1 Team
“Everyone is going to work hard but you have to remember that Red Bull was penalized last year and they can develop less in the wind tunnel this year so in theory they can’t take much more. in advance. So we’ll have to see. But they did a fantastic job, you can’t blame the rules for that. If someone does a better job than everyone else, they must have an advantage. “
Last year, Red Bull has been sanctioned by the FIA for violating the new Financial Regulations in 2021. The Austrian team had to pay a fine of seven million dollars and must deal this year with a reduction in the number of hours devoted to the wind tunnel and the CFD.
Frederic Vasseur, director of Ferrarijudged this insufficient sanction given Red Bull’s advantage at the start of the season. But for Steiner, whose Haas team tied close ties with the Prancing Horsethere is no question of changing the rules to correct the 2022 sanction.
“It’s a voting system, you can’t act just because someone is faster than someone else, it’s not fair”he says. “And [la FIA] finds that something is not legal, they can adjust the rules. Safety is always a concern. We have to find out in the next races what is really going on, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions at the moment.”
Interview by Alex Kalinauckas