Steiner: ‘Unfair’ to question Grosjean’s Haas F1 future

Haas chief Gunther Steiner says it is “unfair” to question Romain Grosjean’s future with the team following his worst-ever start to a Formula 1 season, believing the Frenchman needs just one good race to regain his confidence.

After crashing out behind the Safety Car in Baku at the end of last month, Grosjean sparked a multi-car collision on the opening lap of the Spanish Grand Prix two weeks ago, forcing him to retire from the race.

Grosjean arrives in Monaco in the midst of his worst start to a full F1 season, failing to score in the opening five races, and is also lumbered with a three-place grid penalty for causing the opening lap incident in Barcelona.

Grosjean’s ongoing struggles have led to some speculation about his future with Haas, but Steiner was quick to shut down any rumours on Wednesday in Monaco.

“I don’t know where the rumours came from, so there are no rumours. I think that is the easiest way to stop them,” Steiner said.

“We didn’t even speak about that. Somebody’s having two bad races, there’s no point to start rumours or to start to do things. The only thing that we need to do is to get Romain back to where he is capable of competing, which we all know. He’s a very capable guy.

"He had two bad races. I’m not a person where if someone is on his knees, I try to kick him - that’s unfair. I don’t know where [the rumours] came from or whoever brought them up. I never spoke with anybody about the rumours.”

Steiner revealed that he stepped away from the pit wall mid-race at the Spanish Grand Prix so he could talk to Grosjean, ensuring he did not dwell on the negative aspects of his point-less start to the year.

“We all have bad moments in our life and our careers and how you feel, and I said to him he’ll just get over it. It happens,” Steiner said.

“There’s no point to dwell on it. If you’re negative, negatives come out. It snowballs. So we need to be positive about it.

“The car is capable of doing a lot this year. He just needs to have one event going well for him without drama, and he’ll be alright again. I’m very much convinced about that.”

Asked how the penalty would affect Grosjean, Steiner said: “It doesn’t help, but we’ve got it. What can you do about it? It’s nothing to do about it.

“We know going in that every position you qualify better, then it should be one less you go back. It counts. You start already with a penalty, and here for sure it doesn’t help if you have a penalty. It’s the most crucial part of it.

“You also need to get going even though there’s a three-position grid penalty. We need to start hopefully a trend that we go uphill again with him.”