Günther Steiner highlights the “inconsistency” of the FIA following Hülkenberg’s penalty
The Haas team director expressed his disbelief at the 5-second penalty imposed on Nico Hülkenberg for the maneuver on Sargeant. He didn't hesitate to be critical of the FIA.
An atmosphere of anger and disappointment prevails at Haas after the Monaco Grand Prix, particularly regarding the decisions made by the race management against Nico Hülkenberg.
The German Grand Prix was indeed compromised right from the first lap of the race after a daring overtake, which did not result in any serious accident or contact, at the expense of Logan Sargeant’s Williams. At the entrance of the Mirabeau turn, Hülkenberg collided with the American driver after a borderline maneuver, causing the Haas driver to lock his right front wheel. This attempt was deemed unfair by the stewards, who imposed a five-second penalty on car number 27.
As if that wasn’t enough, the 35-year-old driver did not serve his penalty correctly, which is why the race direction added a new penalty of 10 seconds to him. A decision, especially the one regarding the maneuver on Sargeant, considered by many to be excessive, even though Hülkenberg did not want to create controversy over the incident. « The weekend hasn’t been the best, but the race was still fun, with all its stages, different tires, and different conditions,» he commented.
I am happy to have finished it. The pace was quite good when I had a clear track, but for most of the race, I was stuck in traffic. In a way, I think the problems we encountered were specific to Monaco, so I hope we will be in a better position in Barcelona.
Günther Steiner furious against the FIA
Despite these incidents, Hülkenberg only finished 17th, still doing better than Magnussen, 19th. The penalty imposed on the German was not accepted by Team Principal Günther Steiner, who commented on the “judgments” against his driver: « We tried everything to score points », he added, « it makes no sense to finish 12th, 13th or 14th, so we decided to take a gamble at the end, by staying out and then coming into the pits with rain tires, because you never know what might happen, but it didn’t work. We lost the race in qualifying and we knew that unless something special happened, we wouldn’t be able to score points. We tried, everyone worked hard to make it happen. We received a penalty, we don’t know why, on the first lap. Once again, the FIA was not consistent, but that seems to be the norm now.
