Guenther Steiner defends Yuki Tsunoda after Abu Dhabi penalty: "This is racing"

Former Haas Formula 1 team principal Guenther Steiner has argued that Yuki Tsunoda should not have been penalised during the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The Japanese driver was handed a five-second time penalty and one penalty point for forcing Lando Norris off the track and making more than one change of direction to defend his position during the race. 

After Norris, who was fighting Tsunoda's team-mate Max Verstappen for the championship title, came back out after a pitstop, he was forced to make his way through the grid. As he approached the rear of Tsunoda's Red Bull, Norris went for the overtake, but as Tsunoda moved to defend, the McLaren went off the track.

The stewards noted: "Car 4 was making an overtaking move on Car 22. Car 22 made a number of changes of direction, which ultimately resulted in Car 4 having to go off track to avoid a collision. In doing so, Car 22 also effectively forced Car 4 off the track."

Norris had also been investigated for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, but the stewards deemed no further action was necessary when they found Tsunoda at fault.

Steiner disagreed, however, claiming the overtake from Norris and the defence from Tsunoda was just racing.

"I mean, obviously they would deserve one again because all this moving under braking has become trendy in Abu Dhabi," Steiner said, sarcastically, during an appearance on The Red Flags Podcast.

He added: "Nothing should happen. This is racing. This is what we want to see, the spectator, the fans, want to see... We don't want to see the stewards getting popular with the people by handing out fines, getting attention.

Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Erik Junius

"No, this was fair, it was racing. I think Yuki was on the edge of what he did. Lando was on the edge with it. It all worked out well. It gave us good moments of racing.

"I continue to say if he stopped doing all these things, I can say it, who the f*** is going to watch racing? I mean, and they don't understand that because they want to be watched being stewards and then because they did it with Yuki, they had to do it with the other two guys, you know."