Haas F1 Team Principal Guenther Steiner sees no need for any kind of reconciliation between Kevin Magnussen and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, following their spat after the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The recommencement of the Formula 1 season after the summer break this weekend at Spa-Francorchamps will mark the first time the two have been in the same place since their infamous meeting post-race in Budapest.
Their confrontation began after Magnussen was given a five-second time penalty for running the German, who replaced him at the Enstone-based team for this year, off the track. Later in the media pen, Hulkenberg referred to the Dane as the “most unsporting driver on the grid” to which the former McLaren driver retorted “suck my b***s, honey”.
Four weeks on, however, Steiner believes the story has become “old news” and both drivers need to concentrate on the final nine races of the season.
“It’s been handled fine. At some stage there is a cut-off, it’s getting old, no-one wants to hear old news,” he said on Thursday. “Nothing more needs to be said, I don’t think we need to have a hugging session between Nico and Kevin!
“I think we have our standpoint and he has his own, I don’t think we need to get into ‘he said’, ‘he said’. Just move on and we learned a lot about what you can do in Turn 1 and I think Kevin is ready for it, and we go racing again.
“It was fun, but fun has a sell-by date. If you keep on going on about the same thing it gets old.”
Coincidently both Steiner and Hulkenberg would cross paths in at the airport on the following Monday, posting an image of the two together on Instagram.
“I think it was the last thing he wanted to do and the last thing I wanted to do!” Steiner joked. “But I have a good relationship with him.”