Guenther Steiner has played down the reported row between the crew chiefs that happened over the weekend of the Canadian Grand Prix.
During the time in Montreal, reports surfaced of a heated meeting between the team principals with Toto Wolff and Christian Horner believed to be the main culprits behind the rising tensions.
Netflix cameras, which are filming the fifth season of Drive to Survive, were also present when the altercation took place.
Speaking afterwards, Horner remarked “there was an element of theatrics” to the meeting which was supposed to be focused on the issue of porpoising and some teams wanting rule changes.
Haas Boss Steiner played down rumors of the heated clash and said more was made of it than actually happened.
“More has been done than it was,” the Italian-American told Sky Sports. “It happens more than once, it’s just once the TV was there. Toto got a little emotional.
Steiner was then asked if teacups were thrown away or something and he commented that that would have made it more exciting.
“It wasn’t that bad. It would have been too much fun, at least there [would have been] a bit of action! It was still just words,” Steiner continued.
“We have to keep the regulator impartial. It’s not just if you lobby the most that you achieve what you want to achieve, there are rules in place, there are governments in place, how the rules can be changed and if they need to be changed , how they are applied. We just have to follow that a little more.
Team bosses like Horner and Wolff campaigned for the rules to be changed, whether it was on porpoising or the budget cap, but people like Steiner, whose Haas team sticks to the budget, did argue that established rules should not be changed at will.
“If a team has a problem with something, are we going to change the rules? I don’t think it’s in the interest of the sport because there are rules, everyone goes there and some teams are doing a good job. And then ‘oh let’s change the rules now.’ So they do a different job.
“It’s the same with the cost cap. We agreed on a cost cap, and then we can’t stay there, “oh, let’s just change the cost cap”. Why [did] do we expend effort to establish rules?
“The rules are well thought out at the start, there’s always room to improve them a bit if there’s something wrong but in general the baseline should be the rules in place, we obey them. .
“Then, if there’s something serious brewing, it’s not a lobbying effort or just a self-interested effort to change them. There must be a better reason than that.
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