Steiner has never had 'a gun to his head' for F1 votes

Sam Hall
Friday 30 April 2021 17:59

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner claimed 'nobody puts a gun to your head' for votes in F1 after McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown expressed the need for ballots to be conducted in secret.

In a column on McLaren's website, Brown outlined the need for F1 teams to vote on regulation changes in secret to prevent customer teams from being pressured by power unit suppliers or affiliate teams.

Haas is linked to Ferrari through a power unit deal and through its hub in Maranello, but Steiner has denied ever being encouraged to vote against his will.

"You always speak with people," said Steiner. "It is one of these processes where you speak with people about how you should vote and what is the direction to go which is normal when you run a business.

"But nobody ever said – don’t take it as a fact – puts a gun to your head here [and says] ‘You need to vote that one’.

“Have I had a gun put to my head? No. Nobody does that. You discuss it, you see what is the best.”

Steiner has also declared himself confused by Brown's secret ballot call given the process already exists within the current regulations.

“I don’t vote against my own will," added Steiner. "I don’t do that. I know that this secret voting was always there. It is not asking for something new. It is in the regulations.

"They can just apply it and I don’t know what it will achieve because we always vote what is good for us and one way or another that is what we will continue to do, secret or not secret.

“I am not afraid to let other people know what I voted for so for me it doesn’t make any difference except it will get more complex than it is already and maybe it will cost also more money because we need now to have an outside company to manage our voting.

“If Zak thinks that will make a difference, I hope he is paying the bill for the outside company as well.”