Haas boss Guenther Steiner says that his team “got done by the officials” after its difficult run continued at Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix.
Haas’ VF-22 struggled for performance throughout the weekend at the high-speed, low-downforce Monza track, with the squad opting to tactically fit fresh power unit components to both cars.
Kevin Magnussen’s race was compromised at the start when he was struck by Valtteri Bottas, causing damage to the diffuser, with the Dane subsequently handed a five-second time penalty after cutting the chicane.
That was served at Magnussen’s first pit stop and he was shuffled down the order.
“The thing about this race is basically we got done by the officials,” said Steiner.
“Kevin had an incident at the start where he got shoved off and his diffuser was damaged.
“He got a penalty because he couldn’t stay on the racing line but with the rear wheels up it’s difficult to stay on the racing line – I don’t think the penalty is appropriate.”
Magnussen’s Haas team-mate Mick Schumacher adopted the alternative strategy, running long on Mediums before switching to Softs.
Schumacher recovered to 12th place, with a drive praised by Steiner, but the Italian was frustrated by the race not restarting.
“I don’t think I need to discuss the end of the race because what happened, happened and it wasn’t handled how it should’ve been,” he said.
“Elsewhere, Mick did a fantastic job to get P12 considering his lack of time on track this weekend and our expected pace at this circuit.”
Haas preserved seventh in the standings but its advantage over AlphaTauri has been trimmed to just a single point.
