Gunther Steiner, the team principal of the Haas Formula 1 team, has spoken out against the accusations that the team’s 2018 car is an illegal Ferrari replica.
Following a strong first race of the 2018 Formula 1 season for the Haas team in the Australian Grand Prix at the 16-turn, 3.295-mile Albert Park street circuit in Melbourne, Australia, several of the other teams have called for an FIA investigation into the partnership that the team have with Ferrari.
The team’s two drivers, Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, qualifying in 6th and 7th place, respectively, for the race before starting in 5th and 6th, respectively, following the penalty given to 5th place qualifier Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull Racing.
On the first turn of the first lap of the race, Magnussen made a move on Ricciardo’s Red Bull Racing teammate, Max Verstappen, for 4th place. Several laps later after failing to pass Magnussen, Verstappen spun out and was passed by Grosjean for 5th.
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In their first two seasons of Formula 1 racing in 2016 and 2017, Haas finished in 8th place in the constructor standings, and they never had one of their drivers finish a race in a position higher than 5th place.
However, they looked poised to put both of their drivers in the top 5 in the Australian Grand Prix, and they looked poised to potentially end the race in the top 3 in the constructor standings, possibly even in 2nd place.
While both Magnussen and Grosjean were forced to retire after making their pit stops due to wheel issues, their speed throughout the race weekend set of the alarms of some of the other teams given their drastic speed increase from the 2017 season to the 2018 season.
However, Haas team principal Gunther Steiner has shot down claims that the team’s 2018 car is an illegal replica of Ferrari’s 2017 car, according to the BBC.
"“They see ghosts…(They say): ‘The car looks very similar to a Ferrari from last year.’ So should we have copied their car, which is behind us, or should we go with a car that goes pretty quick? Give me an answer to that.”“We have got the same (wheelbase) as Ferrari. We have to because we have the same suspension – why would we do it different? It’s logic. So it cannot be last year’s Ferrari because it has the same wheelbase as this year’s Ferrari.“My point is, if they have got a problem with that, I show them the way to the FIA. They can file a protest. If you have to justify your incompetence, attack is the best defence. If somebody has double the amount of money and is behind us, whoever owns the team should be asking, ‘what are we doing here?’“It’s competition. Maybe next year we are last. When you speak, you need to have an argument you can back up, not just assumptions.”"
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Will there be an investigation of the partnership between Haas and Ferrari? If so, will anything illegal be found, or is Gunther Steiner correct?