Haas boss Guenther Steiner refutes Daniel Ricciardo penalty claims

An F1 rival has swatted away Daniel Ricciardo’s angry claims, despite admitting his team ignored the rules with a “risky” strategy.

Haas boss Guenther Steiner has swatted away Daniel Ricciardo’s calls for rival star Kevin Magnussen to face a stern penalty for his Hungarian Grand Prix manoeuvres.

Ricciardo was unsurprisingly frustrated at the FIA’s decision to only issue the Haas driver a warning for his repeated late moves under breaking as they almost made contact late in the Budapest race.

The Aussie responded to the decision to only hit Haas with a wet lettuce leaf by revealing his team had to stop him from confronting Magnussen at the track.

Haas was warned about Magnussen’s late moves to stop Ricciardo squeezing past during their battle for 13th place, but no further action was taken despite Ricciardo claiming the warning did nothing to stop Magnussen’s dangerous defensive blocks.

Ricciardo’s anger towards Magnussen was evident when he eventually jumped on his team radio to complain.

“This (expletive) is taking the (expletive) movement on the braking,” Ricciardo said as Sky Sports bleeped out his colourful language.

Daniel Ricciardo reckons Kevin Magnussen was taking the p***.

Steiner has now responded to Ricciardo’s calls for Haas to face penalties when the season resumes at the Italian Grand Prix next month by insisting his team was right to let Magnussen fight for his track position.

“Race control said he has to stop to move under braking, and that was it,” Steiner said, according to mtorsport.com.

“And because there is another driver who does it all the time and gets away with it, that was our answer.

“I think we had a good battle going on for 13th and 14th, otherwise the TV was pretty boring.”

He admitted his team decided to risk being penalised in order to give the fans a battle worth watching.

Kevin Magnussen is no stranger to burning bridges.

“We decided to risk even penalty or getting to the stewards, because I think in the end we are here to race, and I don’t think it was dangerous or anything,” he said.

“The battle was about nothing anyway, so at least it was a good show. And I think they had a good fight.

“For sure, Ricciardo is not happy about it, but I don’t think Kevin did anything, you know, exaggerated. It’s like he was trying to keep his position, so I think everybody enjoyed it.”

FIA race director Michael Masi warned Haas about Magnussen’s conduct but Ricciardo said the punishment needed to go further than that.

“It’s alright, it’s racing, but for sure what we drivers agree on and speak with the stewards about, he definitely moved under braking more than twice,” Ricciardo said.

“I heard he got a warning, but a warning is not enough.”

Ricciardo had a tough day on the track.

Things haven’t exactly gone to plan for Ricciardo since quitting Red Bull and joining Renault this year. He sits 11th in the drivers’ standings and despite his French team’s desire to lead the midfield pack behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, it has slumped to sixth in the constructors’ championship ahead of the summer break.

But Ricciardo is nothing if not optimistic and despite his disappointing weekend in Hungary, he was still trying to focus on the few positives to emerge from the race.

“It was always going to be tough starting at the back of the grid, but there were some positive moments,” Ricciardo said. “We made the hard tyres last well and then had good pace on the soft tyre towards the end.

“There are some positives and the summer break will be good for us. We’ll reset, take some time off, we know we’re in it together and we’ll be targeting a better second half of the season.”