Haas drivers in hot water after clash
Haas Formula 1 boss Gunther
Steiner slammed his drivers’ ‘unacceptable’ first-lap clash and said neither spoke during a post-race reprimand because “I don’t need any explanation of it”.
Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean ran side-by-side through the first few corners at the start of the British Grand Prix before making contact through the flat-out left kink onto the Wellington Straight.
The impact punctured Magnussen’s left-rear tyre and Grosjean’s right rear, both drivers’ feedback over the radio was limited to swearing, and their races ended a few laps after the incident.
Steiner said both were to blame, adding: “It’s not acceptable what happened. I was pretty clear with them after Barcelona [where the two drivers clashed at the first corner after a safety car restart] what not to do.
“In the end, we are in a difficult position at the moment trying to find out about the car on track.
“Everybody works hard like hell, and then it seems we’ve got a chance [for a decent race] when our long runs [on Friday] were OK.
“[Then] we crash into each other on Turn 5, which is not acceptable.”
The clash between the drivers compounded a miserable weekend for Haas, as off-track the team found itself embroiled in an ongoing saga with title sponsor Rich Energy.
The company announced in a tweet last Wednesday evening that it had terminated its partnership with Haas due to poor performance, before shareholders and investors of the energy drink brand then issued a statement to say that the tweet was the work of a “rogue individual” and the deal remained unchanged. Both Haas cars continued to run with
Rich Energy branding all weekend.