Steiner: F1 stewards keep making mistakes

Guenther Steiner has vented his frustration at the Formula 1 stewards after feeling decisions went against his Haas squad in Bahrain and feels they “need to listen” to stop repeating mistakes.

Romain Grosjean endured a tough Bahrain round with the stewards as he picked up a three-place grid drop, plus one penalty point, for obstructing McLaren’s Lando Norris in qualifying, before the French driver suffered Lap 1 contact with Racing Point’s Lance Stroll in which he sustained heavy damage which ultimately wrecked his race.

The F1 stewards looked into the Stroll clash during the race but saw it as a racing incident, therefore not handing out any penalties, a decision which bemused the Haas boss.

“It was clear at the apex and the other one [Stroll] just understeered into him. In the end the stewards - our best friends - decided not to do anything,” Steiner said after the race.

“I sleep at night because I have a clear conscience. Maybe the stewards are awake because their conscience isn’t good. I’m pretty good with my conscience with what I did.”

Steiner feels the F1 stewards must take into consideration the case made by each side before making a decision and believes a pattern of wrong calls is emerging as a result.

“I tell them things that maybe they don’t want to hear but if they do wrong and they have to get better, you need to listen,” he said. “Therefore, they keep making mistakes because they never listen, because they think they are supreme.

“I think there is a pattern. But not only with us, in general. There is a pattern in general.”

Multiple other on-track clashes were investigated by the F1 stewards during the Bahrain race – including Carlos Sainz against Max Verstappen on Lap 4 and Antonio Giovinazzi against Daniil Kvyat on Lap 12 – but all were met with no penalties being handed out.

This year F1 stewards have looked to relax penalties over on-track incidents in order to let drivers race more freely unless clear blame can be apportioned.

Kvyat suffered a double dose of frustration as he was hit with a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane after pitting following damage when he clashed with Giovinazzi.