Steiner: Audi made the right choice by calling Binotto

Former Haas F1 chief Gunther Steiner commented on several key events related to the recent Italian Grand Prix in his next column on the championship’s official website.

Only a few months have passed, but what changes have taken place, would you agree? At the beginning of this year, it looked like Red Bull Racing’s dominance would continue, but now there are already three teams in contention for the Constructors’ Championship, separated by just 39 points.

It always seemed to me that there would come a point where one team or the other would make progress and could have a dispute with the leaders, but I didn’t expect the changes to be so drastic and we would suddenly see Red Bull only third or fourth fastest.

There was a bit of everything at the Italian Grand Prix: the race was very interesting, and the victory went to Ferrari amid the cheers of the tifosi, and there was a lot of other news during the weekend.

One of these relates to Mattia Binotto’s first appearance in the paddock as the new head of the Sauber/Audi programme in Formula 1.

We have known him for a long time. Now he will have a lot of work, but when a new project starts, it is normal, especially because he is ready to take on a new challenge. He wanted it himself!

Now everything is in Mattia’s hands. During 28 years at Ferrari he has built up a wealth of experience that Audi does not have. He knows very well how a big organization like Ferrari works, how it is structured, how all the processes are put together. It will be very difficult to implement all this on the basis of Sauber and to make it a strong factory team, but I am sure Audi made the right choice by inviting Binotto.

Let’s move on to Kimi Antonelli. When Mercedes announced that their protégé would drive for their team in Formula 1 from 2025, I wasn’t surprised, because there was a feeling that this was how it would go. Antonelli has been part of the Mercedes youth program for a long time and they have put a lot of effort into preparing him for Formula 1, including private testing and hundreds of hours of simulator work.

I admit that the chance to move to the top class of motorsport came even earlier than Kimi himself wanted (after skipping the F3 phase, he immediately moved to F2 this year). This probably happened a year earlier than expected, but when such a chance came, it had to be seized.

Toto Wolff’s intentions are clear to me: you could say he decided to throw Antonelli in the water and see how the man floats. But Mercedes knows how to balance their expectations and will do everything to protect Kimi from inflated expectations. They trained and prepared him for a long time.

Toto could have waited another year before signing a contract with Carlos Sainz, but he preferred Antonelli because he believes he is ready for F1.

But we already have a debutant: Franco Colapinto made a very good impression at Williams, where he took the wheel of Logan Sargent’s car.

James Vowles knows what qualities a young driver needs, as he was also responsible for the youth programme at Mercedes. He saw how Franco progressed as a student of the Williams Racing Academy and it is clear that he saw something special in him, so he decided to see if the Argentine was really as good as the team thinks.

In Monza Franco did not disappoint: I was no longer looking at the race results, but at the difference in results between him and his Williams teammate. Colapinto finished just 13 seconds behind the experienced Alex Albon. Given that Alex is a very good driver, this only emphasizes that Franco did quite well. Without a mistake in qualifying he could have come even closer to Albon in the race.

Overall he performed well in his debut Grand Prix, but now we need to continue to gain momentum, and this is even harder than running your very first race.

It is impossible not to say anything about the situation in which the Haas team found itself. At Monza Kevin Magnussen finished in the top ten: if he sees a chance to earn points, he can surpass himself. If he has the right attitude, he will become a very good driver.

But now Kevin is suspended for one race and has some free time. But this situation has been looming for a long time, because the Dane had accumulated many penalty points, and there was a possibility anyway that he would have to miss one race before the end of the year.

Is Magnussen happy about his suspension? No. Can this be considered a surprise? Not at all. Earlier this year, Magnussen did something he probably already regretted. Actually, the incident on track in Monza wasn’t that blatant, but if you get a fine, you can also get penalty points.

Oliver Berman was the obvious choice for Haas, but now he is facing a reality check. Jumping behind the wheel of a Ferrari, as was the case in Jeddah, is one thing, but competing in a race in a car that is not in contention for the podium is another. It is more difficult to adapt to such a machine.

However, it is useful for him to get behind the wheel before his full debut in F1. He did an excellent job in Saudi Arabia, and I am sure he will not let you down in Baku.