Steiner critiques FIA procedure: "I don't know why they don't do it"

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guenther steiner does not understand why fia did not carry out more checks after usa
27 October 2023 at 13:10

After the US Grand Prix, four cars were checked, two of which did not (or no longer) comply with the regulations. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified. A failure rate of 50%. Yet the FIA did not carry out tests on the other 16 cars to check irregularities. Guenther Steiner still does not understand that a week later.

With that, Steiner goes one step further than Verstappen. The three-time world champion would have liked the cars of Carlos Sainz and George Russell to also have been checked after their two teammates' cars were declared illegal. While Verstappen understands that not all 20 cars were subjected to testing, Steiner is less understanding.

"[The check] doesn't take long. You just have to lift the car and go under it. I don't think it takes a long time to measure it," he is quoted by Motorsport-Total.com. "The regulations don't require them to check all the cars. You could say it's a simple check, and they should do it by default. I don't know why they don't do it. That's a question for the FIA, not for me."

Steiner disagrees with FIA reading

The FIA stated afterwards that they followed their own regulations. The governing body claims not to be able to check all cars afterwards. Steiner doesn't quite go along with that. "If you want to make a rocket science out of measuring a plank, we can do that, but I don't think there is rocket science behind it," he said.

He continues: "They held the cars [after the findings on Hamilton and Leclerc] for a very long time while they discussed what to do. In my opinion, they could have checked the other 16 cars in the meantime," is the verdict of the Haas F1 team boss.