14 June 2023 , 19:52
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Guenther Steiner was given no support by his fellow Formula 1 team bosses after he was reprimanded by the stewards for his comments about their expertise.
The Haas chief was livid after a penalty handed to one of his drivers in Monaco. Nico Hulkenberg was penalised for a first-lap incident, after which Steiner said he had no idea why the punishment was given.
And he went on to call for a "professional" panel of stewards, rather than the rotation system currently in place. He referred to them as "laymen" as he lamented the lack of consistency in decision-making.
Steiner was hauled in front of the stewards the following weekend in Barcelona as a result of those comments. He was given an official reprimand, with the FIA taking particular exception to "laymen" being used, from their viewpoint, as a slur.
He said in response: "I explained to the stewards that I had not intended to offend anyone and that my use of certain words could have been open to misinterpretation or misunderstood by some people. I told the stewards that I apologised if my statements were misunderstood or caused hurt to anyone as that was not my intention."
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Perhaps wary of also incurring the wrath of the FIA, his fellow team principals showed little support for Steiner's words. When asked for their views, several of them voiced their contentment with the current system.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said his team "trusts the FIA". And Aston Martin chief Mike Krack prefers to "leave this for the FIA to decide".
F1 team principals did not offer Steiner much support on the matter (Getty Images)Toto Wolff, referring to the infamous 2021 Abu Dhabi result which saw Lewis Hamilton controversially miss out on title glory, made it clear: "I never had my doubts in the system, I had my doubts in individuals.
"I think that as a steward and as a race director you have immense pressure to do the right things and probably every decision is going to have someone that likes it and the other one that doesn't. So I think they're just trying their best they can and we need to support the FIA where we can."
And AlphaTauri chief Franz Tost added: "So far, this year, the stewards made correct decisions. Most of the time the stewards are well-known – it's not that at every race that they're completely new. They are changing from time to time, but you see always the same faces."