Haas is well known for its close ties with the Ferrari works team, since the first year of the American team on the F1 grid, most of its car non-aerodynamic parts are supplied by Ferrari, which is permitted by the rules. But complaints over whether this is the direction teams and the sport should go have been ongoing ever since, and have now regained momentum as Haas is once again a force to be reckoned in the midfield.

Speaking to selected media – including MotorLAT, in a virtual media session, Steiner explained how it is “not even frustrating” these complaints, as he got used to his team being overly questioned and doubted over the years:

“It’s not even frustrating, it’s just like ‘again’. I don’t get frustrated anymore, you get used to it. It’s normal,” said Steiner.

Recently, comments from the McLaren Team Principal, Andreas Seidl, have prompted fresh conversation about Haas’ partnership with Ferrari. Seidl said teams should only be allowed to share power units and gearbox internals between them, as it’s a “matter of principle”:

“It’s a matter of principle for us since many, many years. And it’s clear for us that Formula 1 should be a championship of 10 constructors, or 11 or 12, which means there should be no transer happening of any IP which is related to the core performance.

“For us, it’s clear that (in) Formula 1… the maximum that should be allowed to share is the power units and the gearbox internals. That’s it, there should be no sharing of any infrastructure and so on, because as soon as you allow that, IP transfer is happening on the car side,” Seidl concluded.

Mick Schuamcher on track in FP2 for the Australian GP - Image by Hasan Bratic - MotorLAT

When asked about these comments from Seidl, Steiner emphatically said that people can’t “change everything by just speaking”, and is clear that there is a “governance” in place to set and dictate the rules, stating that Andreas Seidl “doesn’t run the FIA, fortunately”:

“Andreas doesn’t run the FIA, fortunately, so he can suggest it but there is a governance in place which will define (the rules), as much as he wants to run (it).

“There are, sometimes, things in the rules, if they don’t work for you, you cannot go and change it. Mercedes was winning the world championship eight years in a row, they had a very strong engine – good for them, they did a good job. Nobody said ‘we now need to change (the) engines because Mercedes is winning everything. There’s governance in place.

“If certain people think they can change everything by just speaking, I don’t think that is going to happen,” concluded Steiner.