Kevin Magnussen, Haas, Baku City Circuit, 2018

Steiner rejects Gasly’s criticism of “dangerous” Magnussen

RaceFans Round-up

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Quotes: Dieter Rencken

In the round-up: Haas team principal Guenther Steiner defended his driver Kevin Magnussen following criticism from Pierre Gasly.

What they say

Steiner was told Gasly had described Magnussen as “the most dangerous driver I ever raced against” following the collision between the pair in Baku:

That’s what he called Hartley, his team mate [on Saturday] so there’s nothing changed there. But sometimes you need to think for yourself as well. He’s pretty new here, we’ll wait until he makes mistakes.

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Max Verstappen, Budapest, 2018
Max Verstappen, Budapest, 2018

Max Verstappen performed a demonstration run for Red Bull in Budapest yesterday.

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Comment of the day

Was a red flag needed during the closing stages of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix?

I completely agree with Stroll on this. I was shouting at the TV for a red flag, especially after Grosjean crashing and with the truck and marshals everywhere.

I was having images of Bianchi and couldn’t watch every time they drove near it. I sometimes wonder if the FIA have learnt anything from recent years, or if they are happy to trust the Halo will protect as needed.

Halos don’t protect marshals though. Very disappointed with how it was managed.
@CaptainPie

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On this day in F1

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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36 comments on “Steiner rejects Gasly’s criticism of “dangerous” Magnussen”

  1. Next: Franz Tost to defend Gasly and says that Magnussen is the most dangerous driver in F1. ;)

  2. Obvious statement by Steiner, but it’s not the first time something like that was said about Magnussen…

    BTW @keithcollantine the comments aren’t working properly… sometimes they don’t show up at all.

    1. @fer-no65 It is common for team bosses to publicly stand back of their drivers but Steiner’s comments stand out as particularly aggressive. Perhaps it is part of the team’s PR strategy as their 2018 results have so far been worse than expected plus they get criticized for being a ‘Ferrari replica’ so it makes sense to fight back.

      As for Magnussen himself, he really seems to believe that kind of racing philosophy. Let us see where it ultimately leads him. It is unlikely that he will ever drive for a top team in F1 so the only question is if he is soon going to be considered to be too dangerous not only for the other drivers but his own team as well.

    2. You can always tell that a response is weak when it doesn’t answer the question, just gives a ‘what about’ something else. I can’t believe Magnussen’s driving having seen the video. Someone who has such little regard for human life such as him should not be near a Formula 1 car!

      1. @georgeod I also watched the videos, several times, and Magnussen’s move was certainly worthy of the penalty he got. Pretty scary. That said, I think your saying that he has “little regard for human life” is a bit drastic. I seriously doubt there is a driver on the grid who would intentionally ram into another car while screaming along at over 300 kph. The video from KM’s car clearly showed that his mirrors were wobbling and shaking dramatically (something that the team needs to sort out asap), and I have no reason to believe he was lying when he stated that he was simply unaware of Gasly being there.

        1. This wobbling mirror nonsense needs to stop. If he can see enough to block another driver 2 times then visibility is not an issue. It is nonsensical explanation to say he could see his mirrors just fine when he was making clean defensive moves but suddenly the mirrors become too wobbly to see when he pushes other car into the wall almost 2 times on the same straight. He saw gasly and he knew exactly what he was doing.

          1. “He saw Gasly and he knew exactly what he was doing.”
            That is only your opinion. Stating it as a fact implies that you are somehow privy to his thoughts and vision. Either that or KM called you up and confessed. Neither is very likely.

          2. @schooner
            You only need to look at the onboard video. If he moves to block gasly then it is because he see where he is. It is clear from the video. And drivers lie all the time. If you expect magnussen or anybody to be 100% honest all the time you are not going to be right very many times. Your logical fallacy is that you for whatever reason think that direct confession from magnussen is the only way we can figure out the truth. Which is of course nonsense. Maybe we should ignore the video evidence and ask magnussen whether he even collided with gasly at all. If he says no then what we see on video is “just an opinion”. Hurp durp no way to know it happened unless magnussen confesses…

        2. His mirror was ruined after first turn – Eri hit him and teared up the left side- he couldnt see anything

          1. Nunu, from the onboard footage, it looked like Magnussen was turning his head to the left to look in his mirror to look for Gasly before then turning to the left to block him – so evidently they were working well enough for Magnussen to see where Gasly was going before he started blocking him.

    3. Just about every driver has said the same thing about Magnussen already.

      And this isn’t the first time Steiner has jumped to defend his untrained dog after someone got bitten … time to put a leash on the driver, & then take action against the team boss for encouraging him to keep doing the same.

  3. pastaman (@)
    2nd May 2018, 2:01

    Oh boy Mazepin is back! FI will surely benefit from his expert driving.

    1. lol seriously, he has some serious credentials:

      Starts 60
      Wins 0
      Poles 0
      Fastest laps 0

  4. Cotd is right. I think the stewards were weak, didnt want to make the right decision in fear of the top teams.

    1. Indeed, it is also annoying when the result of an investigation is affected as they ‘don’t want to affect the championship’. They have rules and no matter who it is they should apply the same reasoning and same punishment. If (just as an example however ridiculous it may seem) Stroll and Gasly are in Abu Dabhi on equal points and one of them is in first (lets say Stroll) and the other third (Gasly), and then Gasly cuts a corner to get past second and starts closing in on Stroll. I don’t care that not penalising him would mean an exciting end to the race and championship and that penalising him would diffuse the whole situation and make it an easy tension-less win for Stroll. Gasly should be penalised for breaking the rules just like anyone else would else the competition is unfair and unsporting!

      What I think they should do is have the Stewards locked away so they don’t know who is where or anything and then be shown the replays of any investigate-able incidents with the cars whited-out* so they can’t tell who it is they are investigating, just see the incident in its own right and penalise accordingly. The license points system will show anyone who is repetitively driving dangerously so each incident can be looked out without ‘oh he did this this three times already time for a ban’; though the points given out need to be overhauled as at the moment the same number of points get given for accidentally locking up and knocking someone into a spin as deliberately driving into someone it seems – but that is a separate discussion.

      *By whited-out I mean have graphics that cover the colours/distinguishing features of the cars and helmets… They put CGI ads on the sides of the road (‘Bernie says drive safe’ or whatever) so use this technology to cover the cars. Hope that makes sense!

    2. ColdFly (@)
      2nd May 2018, 8:37

      Come on kids. If we don’t think a marshall is safe when the SC is deployed (on a dry day with all cars bumped up) then we better remove all personnel from the pit lane when a car enters as well.
      The SC driver should decide how fast they can safely drive past the zone where marshalls are working.

      And yes I know that Grosjean crashed behind the SC. But he was weaving and changing settings. It’s beyond obvious that you don’t do that if there are marshalls on track; you would not do that in the pit lane either.

      1. @coldfly I think you are mistaking safety with relative safety. Nobody is 100% safe, even under safety car. Under safety car conditions the cars are still travelling very fast. Cars are not always bumped up under SC conditions, given that lapped cars can unlap themselves and drivers can make pit stops.

        I think your initial comments detract with your argument, which is one I agree with. The SC driver can drive more slowly in the area of the accident, which reduces the risk. I feel that this is suitable risk mitigation.

    3. Agree with the COTD as well. Anything could happen.. a Marshall come cross the track from behind the truck, which would make it hard for driver to react to a situation. Or the truck could be moving slowly just around the corner without being visible till too late.

      It just seemed unnecessary to keep the race running at that moment. Even from a race fan’s perspective, it would be better to get a red flag and restart the race instead of having only 2 laps left on the board at the end of the safety car period.

  5. I don’t necessarily agree with the COTD. I was OK with the fact the race didn’t get red-flagged although I wouldn’t have been entirely against it either.
    – I have to disagree with Steiner this time. The type of move K-Mag pulled on Gasly isn’t really on TBH. I’m all for hard racing as long as it stays both clean and fair, and that move was far from fair racing.

    1. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
      2nd May 2018, 7:28

      Agreed on both parts.

    2. But he couldn’t see Gasly – his mirror was ruined after the ERI clash in first corner..

  6. Kubica will do fp1 in Barcelona and then a full testing day, good to see him getting time in the car. He will drive in an f1 race weekend for the first time in 7.5 years, that’s amazing.

  7. If Keith were to do his driver rankings right now, I wonder where would Verstappen be placed? I think somewhere between ranking 10 to 15, closer to 15. Or worse?

    1. how is this relevant to this round-up?

      1. Max drove beautiful, impeccable, faultless, in a league of his own.
        Yesterday in Budapest.

        1. FlatSix (@)
          2nd May 2018, 8:30

          @osella-alfaromeo He literally had no competition!

        2. ColdFly (@)
          2nd May 2018, 8:40

          That just proves once and for all that it’s the other drivers’ fault that he crashed this season ;-)

        3. @osella-alfaromeo I always knew he could do it! Prove that he is better than Maldonado, I mean: https://www.racefans.net/2012/08/13/f1-fanatic-roundup-138/

          @coldfly Does anyone know where Ericsson was in each of those cases?

  8. It was exactly the same fiasco as last year. Complete organizing failure. People say “best rest of the year” same as they were saying it last time. But its just because of non racing chaos, debris everywhere, just like last year. Lots of contacts, just like last year. If this is what people like on racing, F1 is NOT the series for them. I don’t think it was a good race. I don’t think this is a good track and I don’t think the organizers did a good job. Again.

    I hate when the race winner is decided by organizers’ incompetence in keep the track in condition that does not destroy the cars. Its a horrible layout in general anyway…

    1. ColdFly (@)
      2nd May 2018, 8:46

      I hate when the race winner is decided by organizers’ incompetence in keep the track in condition that does not destroy the cars.

      The race winner was not decided by the organisers’ incompetence. The fastest guy lost out due to his own mistake, and (arguably) the second fastest guy won.
      The luckiest guy with the SC timing, got unlucky due to (debris resulting from) an accident after the SC, thus even a Red Flag would not have changed that.

    2. I don’t think the majority of contributers on here, see it that way.
      The “fiasco” side does throw up the unexpected situations of course, but I think what most people love in f1, which these days often seems hard to come by is unpredictability and tension for the win.
      Ideally this is achieved via a few teams running close to the front, race long, failing that, a bit of chaos will also do the same, but it’s not the actual “chaos” that fans want, it’s the bi-product of it!
      And let’s not forget, there were many race battles before the carnage.

      1. That was a reply to Mikee, not @coldfly

  9. ColdFly (@)
    2nd May 2018, 8:45

    I hate when the race winner is decided by organizers’ incompetence in keep the track in condition that does not destroy the cars.

    The race winner was not decided by the organisers’ incompetence. The fastest guy lost out due to his own mistake, and (arguably) the second fastest guy won.
    The luckiest guy with the SC timing, got unlucky due to (debris resulting from) an accident after the SC, thus even a Red Flag would not have changed that.

    1. ColdFly (@)
      2nd May 2018, 8:47

      Alt Ctr Del

  10. Guenther Steiner claims: “Two wrongs DO make a right”.

  11. Haas has a feud with everyone.

Comments are closed.