Kevin Magnussen, Romain Grosjean, Haas, Circuit de Catalunya, 2019

Haas held talks to “clear the air” between Grosjean and Magnussen immediately after race

2019 Spanish Grand Prix

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Haas team principal Guenther Steiner took action immediately after the Spanish Grand Prix to defuse any tensions between his drivers over their clashes during the race.

Romain Grosjean was forced onto the run-off at turn two twice as he and Kevin Magnussen fought over seventh place.

“I spoke to both drivers straight after the race,” Steiner confirmed afterwards. “I wanted to clear the air.”

He said he wasn’t blaming either driver for the contact between the two of them.

“We cleared the air, we are OK. It is neither here nor there. I told them I’m not sitting here until midnight to look at videos whose fault it is. We need to learn out of this and move forwards. We got away quite lucky even if we lost some points.

“In the end we had two cars in the points which is always good. They have a good relationship between the two of them, they had it before. And I wanted to make sure there is nothing said from one of them that upsets the other one.”

However Steiner admitted he can’t guarantee the pair will have another run-in. “I got them both straight after the race, we talked it through maybe for 15 minutes and we said move on from this and don’t do it again. Can I promise that they don’t do it again? No.”

After his second trip across the run-off Grosjean lost some heat in his tyres and came under attack from Carlos Sainz Jnr, who passed him. Daniil Kvyat demoted Grosjean another place.

“He had to bring [the tyres] up back to temperature,” Steiner explained. “And then the car got quicker again as you saw. There is some damage on the floor but I couldn’t tell you how much he lost.”

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Keith Collantine
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32 comments on “Haas held talks to “clear the air” between Grosjean and Magnussen immediately after race”

  1. I’d imagine ‘clear the air’ talks with Steiner actually turn it blue… good to see Haas finally having a decent race though.

    1. @tflb, indeed, Steiner did sound a bit sterner over the radio when he gave Magnussen the order to report to him immediately after the race – suggesting that he was more frustrated about that incident than he indicated to the press in that interview.

  2. Why? GRO tried two overtakes – none effective. End of talk.

    1. Why? Because the team lost points. As simple as that.

    2. I’m with @maiagus…Grosjean was trying to overtake where there was little to no chance of it coming off without Magnussen being incredibly generous. It was hard but fair racing. Nothing to clear up in my book.

  3. Well that’s an episode of Drive to Survive season 2 to look out for!

  4. Steiner should know by now that Grosjean is guaranteed to lose more points than he will score. Not that it is every his fault.

  5. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    13th May 2019, 1:26

    From a team perspective, I’m not sure what the point of passing Grosjean was. Haas had a great chance of scoring 10 points but ended up with 7 and were quite lucky to get that many considering the fact that the cars collided and Grosjean went off track.

    Haas is now sitting in P6 – they ended P5 last year with a comfortable margin. It’s very unlikely that Haas will stay ahead of Renault over the entire season. The margins are much tighter this season with Raikonnen in one of the Alfa Romeos.

    Magnussen ended up looking good… this time but I guess if you flip coins, you’re bound to call it right 50% of the time.

    1. Grosjean was not in the right tiretemperature window at the restart. Magnussen was, if he had “waited” he would put him self at risk from behind.
      Getting past Grosjean was a sure way to keep atleast one HAAS in front of the midfield.

      Grosjean, should Either have kept temperature in his tires or settled with 8 place and not trash his car.

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        13th May 2019, 12:48

        @kelvin38 my understanding was that Grosjean lost temperature in the tyres after his runoff.

        1. That also happened. But the reason kmag could pass him into T1 was the fact that he had grip in the last corner. He had much higher exit speed going onto the straight.

          1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            13th May 2019, 12:58

            @kelvin38 Didn’t Magnussen collide with Grosjean on the turn? He didn’t have much higher speed – he just risked both cars after the safety car gave him a chance to catch up.

            A nice run off of both cars would have cost Haas tens of millions of dollars but hey Magnussen had more speed after the safety car, right? :-)

            Any other team watching this were laughing their posteriors off and thanking God that Magnussen doesn’t drive for them.

          2. SENNA : If you see a chance to overtake and don’t take it you are no longer a racedriver”

          3. @freelittlebirds Since apparently everyone except you says that it was a clean pass and Grosjean should have tucked in behind, I dont quite agree with you.

            Gro should have calmed down, setup a clean overtake if he was faster.

            No one is laughting, he has repsect from other teams. The internet idiots, not so much.

          4. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            13th May 2019, 23:02

            @kelvin38 it wasn’t a clean pass – it was one of the worst passes of the race. Total and absolute nonsense.

            Obviously Grosjean didn’t want to defend and take out Magnussen – that was obvious. He bowed out several times to avoid a collision and bring the car home.

            Can you say the same about Magnussen? Haas was technically in P1 and P2 since all 6 top cars were running without issues and had outqualified them.

            As for clean overtakes on Magnussen, you might want to ask Hulk, Alonso, and Grosjean and they can tell you – I guess they are also internet idiiots:-)

    2. Michael,
      Fail to follow you here – sure this is a team sport but each and every driver wants to win as individuals!
      Had Bottas or Leclerc had a chance like this on their team mates they would have done exactly the same as Magnussen – that is what race drives do… Multi-21 ring a bell?

      Besides, you are assuming Haas could have kept 7 and 8, but Grosjean was slower at the restart and nobody could know how long it would stay that way – what would you have Magnussen do? Sit and wait until he got passed from behind?

      In my opinion Grosjean was the one looking silly in this case – he lost a place after the restart due to tire problems. He then managed to get his tires back to temperature, but instead of securing 8th he lost his head and tried silly overtakes that were never going to work and ended up being punished for this…

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        13th May 2019, 22:56

        @inkalen

        I understand your point but Magnussen gained almost nothing and risked a collision multiple times with his teammate on lap 60. He could have timed the pass after they got out of DRS zone.

        There’s racing and there’s just being a tool – Magnussen was a tool. Grosjean could have easily wiped him out if he had stayed like Magnussen did.

        Grosjean looked silly but he got the 7 points – Magnussen was willing to throw them away as if they were a used roll of toilet paper – one that could cost 20 million. Grosjean bowed out everytime. Lewis did the same to Nico and guess which team Nico drives for despite winning a WDC the year he was let go.

  6. You are not much of a racer/winner if you just sit back and coast in a faster car. You have to take some chances, and you have to show of to get noticed. MAG did what any winner would do.

    1. +1, Frank Dahl

    2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      13th May 2019, 13:05

      @frankadam @jens Oh, he got noticed but it’s a different kind of notice. He’s untouchable by any other team because he risked 12.5% of the team’s points on a silly pass after the safety car on lap 60.

      Sure, the safety car gave me a chance to pass and I collided with my teammate on the last lap cause I’m fearless.

      We could have been rock stars but we ended up being winkers :-)

      1. He did most certainly NOT cost the points for the team. Romain got overtaken two times afterwards because he was agressively trying to come back instead of defending himself.
        I quote SENNA : If you see a chance to overtake and don’t take it you are no longer a racedriver”

        1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
          13th May 2019, 16:52

          @frankadam perhaps against another team, not against your teammate on lap 60 when you’re running 1,2 in the best of the res.. Actually, Grosjean could also have passed Magnussen but not without contact. Romain brought the points back to Haas, including Kevin’s. Kevin brought nothing…

          He was willing to tank Haas to prove he’s fearless – message received.

          But he’s a safety car racer with contact on how teammate , isn’t he?

        2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
          13th May 2019, 16:55

          @frankadam oh, yes he did and he risked the points multiple times. It’s one thin to make a huge mistake once but he made it 3 times in a row. That sort of mentality is scary when the team is running 1,2.

  7. Time for both these average drivers to go…

    Maybe a direct swap with Williams?

    1. If these “average” drivers as you call them were to swap car with the Mercedes drivers, then HAM and BOT would look “average” and HAM would have passed BOT the same way MAG did GRO. The only difference is, that no one would call out HAM for it.

    2. Oh yeah, those talented Williams drivers, right? Where the experienced driver gets pounded by the F1 rookie 5 races in a row. Come on, you’re too bios’ed to comment :)

  8. I quote SENNA : If you see a chance to overtake and don’t take it you are no longer a racedriver”

    1. @frankadam I wish to quote one of my favourite counterpoints: “If you go for a gap that no longer exists, you are no longer a racing driver (you are instead a passenger)”.

      1. BlackJackFan
        13th May 2019, 19:25

        Hahaha – nice reply.

      2. Gap was there is was a clean pass 100% race instinct. All great drivers would have done it. Hamilton, Vettel, Verstappen, Senna, Schumi, Alonso. If you don’t want to win, why bother driving?

  9. As they said after race on danish television: Try to look at this unbiosed. Imagine taht you’re an Indian watching this race, not knowing the drivers or the teams, and have no favorite to win whatsoever. Would the pass look fair or not to you then?
    I’m biosed towards Kevin, but with the above mindset, i saw nothing wrong. It was racing. He went for the gap, because he was faster, and he had the edge in the first corner, so it was Grosjean who had to make up his mind, to either back off or risk a collision.

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