Guenther Steiner continues to fight back at the critics of the Haas F1 Team, with the Team Principal insisting that everything the team have done since joining Formula 1 has been within the regulations.
Ever since the team joined the grid back in 2016, Haas has been criticised for using many parts designed by Scuderia Ferrari in addition to the supply of engines and gearboxes. However, Steiner says that everything on the car is legal, and that he does not care whether anyone has a negative opinion on the model the team is using to be relatively successful.
“I don’t really care,” said Steiner. “Some of the people that say that, I don’t really know what they mean by it. I think they don’t know what they mean with it.
“It’s normally the people that cannot understand why we’re doing such a good job. They just say we’re copying Ferrari. There are clearly written rules – what you can and can’t do – and we do everything to the rulebook. I don’t really care if they have a bad opinion about us.
“Nobody would care if we were at the bottom,” he continued. “Everybody would be happy. That’s what everyone was expecting. That’s where they thought we would be when we got into Formula One.
“It’s developed over the years with people getting more critical. It goes hand-in-hand with our classifications. After a while, you get used to it. You live with it and don’t care.”
Steiner says there is no big secret about how Haas are fighting with those at the front of the midfield battle just four years into their existence, and he is full of praise of the hard-working mechanics and engineers.
“There’s no big secret,” said Steiner. “We’ve got a good team of people and they’re very dedicated. They work hard. That’s how we’re doing it.
“We always try to do the best with what we’ve got. We all like to be doing what we’re doing. We enjoy it, and that’s why we can achieve the results.
“Not only the car, the team is getting better. That’s normal, as you learn over time. The only thing you cannot buy is time. You have to give yourself time to get better, so that’s what we’re trying to do.
“As long as we keep on improving, we’ll be good.”
After mixed results in the opening two Grand Prix in Australia and Bahrain, Steiner still does not know where Haas sit in relation to their main rivals, but he hopes to see both Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen return to the front of the midfield battle this weekend in China.
“It’s a good car, but we still need to find where we really are,” said Steiner. “It looks like we’re in the top group of the midfield.
“Obviously, with the new regulations a lot of things changed. It’s an evolution. We used what was good on the previous car – we didn’t reinvent it – but we adapted it in a very good way to the new rules. Everyone did a very good job over the winter. I expect us to still be in the upper midfield in Shanghai.”
