Steiner says Haryanto incident "not too clever"
Haas team boss Gunther Steiner was critical of the rival Manor squad following a pitlane accident during final practice for the Australian Grand Prix.
Photo by: XPB Images
Romain Grosjean and Rio Haryanto made contact after the Indonesian was sent into the path of the Haas driver as the Frenchman drove down the pitlane.
Haryanto was given a three-place grid penalty for not paying "attention to the approaching car".
Steiner reckons mistakes like that should not occur in F1 and labelled it as "not very clever".
"I think it was a mistake that shouldn't happen," said Steiner. "Obviously the FIA gave them penalties, so they took the right measurements, but we should be above this.
"We didn't do anything wrong. It's not very clever."
The Haas car has "the speed"
Grosjean finished in 19th in the American team's first-ever qualifying session, with teammate Esteban Gutierrez one place behind.
They both finished ahead of the Manor drivers.
Steiner said Haas had the potential to do better, but was nonetheless pleased with its debut effort.
"I'm happy, because if we look at our times in the second attempt they aren't bad, so if somebody analyses them, we are pretty good," said the Austrian.
"On the first lap with the new tyres Romain had a lock-up and Esteban had a small issue, so we should have called him in after the first lap and we would have had enough time to prepare the car.
"But I'm happy because I know the car has potential. To be in the second-to-last row is not fantastic for tomorrow, but I'm still confident we have a good shot tomorrow to move forward.
"The car has the speed, the balance, so I'm pretty positive about the future. We just have to do a better job."
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