Steiner responded to Wolff’s words about Mick Schumacher

In March, Mercedes chief Toto Wolff criticized Haas chief Gunther Steiner for the American team’s attitude towards Mick Schumacher last season. Specifically, Wolff suggested that Steiner “wouldn’t dare treat Mick like that if his legendary sire Michael were present in the paddock.” On Sky Sports, Günther Steiner was given the opportunity to respond to Wolff.

“If my father had been in the paddock, Toto wouldn’t have said things like that,” Steiner joked.

Haas’s boss insists he treated Mick fairly, but the rider’s family tried to cause a split in the team: such an approach. In the end, they didn’t take any active steps to divide us, but that’s what they ended up doing.

I think Mick was uncomfortable hearing his family talk about me, and I was uncomfortable with them. Even though his family tried to pressure me, the team decides who gets behind the wheel. The rider does not decide who he will ride for. So there’s no point in trying to rock the team because you want to say I didn’t care enough about Mika.

In the end, he earned points, but no one said it was because “Gunther worked that way with Mick.” In turn, I don’t expect anyone to blame me for Mick’s mishaps. It only depends on the rider whether he earns points or not, and it only depends on him that he doesn’t get into any accidents.

The team’s responsibility is to provide the driver with the best possible car – and we have always done that. We’ve always treated the drivers the same way and given them the same cars.

But in some situations, if we could not provide the drivers with the same cars, we always explained that some new items are only available in one copy. We never hid anything or gave advantage to one rider at the expense of another because I always adhere to the life principle that all people should be treated fairly to get the maximum benefit.

After all, in whose interest are the riders to get the maximum? In mine and teams, so why sabotage one of my riders?

After all, some may not be happy with what the team leader is doing, but that doesn’t bother me. I won’t change anything just because someone isn’t on the team right now.

Steiner added that he did not communicate with Mick Schumacher after the rider left the team: “I haven’t seen Mick this year. We met at the tests, I said hello to him, but we haven’t seen each other since he’s now in the part of the paddock where the champions are. We didn’t cross him for three races.

It’s no problem for me to say hello to him. I don’t know how he’ll react, but I think we’re all grown up now. After all, we spent two years together. We tried a lot, gave Mick a chance that I think should be respected. The Haas team gave him a chance, but now it’s time to move on. Formula 1 is a pretty small world, so there’s no point in fighting or not saying hello to someone.”