A few good races don't fix F1's problems

Haas boss Gunther Steiner has urged Liberty Media to continue to look at ways of improving the spectacle of F1 despite the recent run of exciting races.

After a dismal French GP in June, a nadir for the season, fans were treated to four superb battles in a row through Austria, UK, Germany and Hungary.

Those enthralling events have tempered voices demanding sweeping change to the regulations to allow closer racing and more competition between teams.

But Steiner is keen to stress that just because the races have been worth watching recently, it does not alleviate a problem that has developed over a number of seasons.

He said: "We still need to make it better in general, have a level playing field, because this can be the most exciting sport in the world, in my opinion, so we never have to forget that.

"It's not that because we had four good races it's all good now. Somebody has a billion [pound] budget, and living in this dream world.

"We had four good ones, but there is always the risk that we'll have four bad ones. Then we complain. We are too reactive.

"You need to keep, I think, the bigger picture in mind. Yeah, we had four good ones, thank you, but we want 21 or 22 of those."

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Steiner is very clear on where this return to close racing will come from - the revised budget caps that limit all constructors' spending across the season.

He added: "We need to keep the big picture in place and for me the big picture is the budget cap, which is coming.

"The first one, as I always say, will not solve all the problems, but this is a step in the right direction and keep going with it, let the people race more.

"But it's not that we can now say that because we had four good races everything is fantastic, because it isn't."

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