Haas team boss Guenther Steiner believes Renault’s decision to protest the legality of their car at the Italian Grand Prix was a bid to distract away from their own lack of performance.
Romain Grosjean was thrown out from the race at Monza having finished sixth after part of his floor was deemed not in compliance with a technical directive that was issued earlier in the year and had to be addressed by that event.
An appeal was launched and will be heard on November 1st with Steiner staying on the offensive over why the Enstone outfit decided to cry foul.
“I just see their performance has gone down, I don’t know what’s going on internally,” he was quoted by PlanetF1. “For sure they dropped their performance, and their engine they make themselves so they can have nobody to blame.
“If they confuse themselves even more, it’s better for us – I’m not against it! You could see that they were a little bit desperate when they put the protest in against us in Monza.
“They’ll try anything instead of focusing on themselves to get better.”
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The result is important at the two teams battle for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship with Renault currently eight points ahead, should the decision be reversed, however, Haas will move two points clear.
Rather than depend on that outcome though, Steiner wants to focus on surpassing the French manufacturer on the track.
“It’s still difficult,” he suggested. “I know we have four races to go.
“They were not very strong [at Suzuka] but they were luckier than us and scored a point but their performance and their pace was not good.
“That doesn’t mean that they’re not going to be good in Austin and Mexico and we need to have our guard up and do a good job. We are not there yet.
“We will fight but there’s still a long way to go, still four races, still 20% of the championship.”