Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has turned up the heat in their beef with Renault by suggesting their protest after the Italian GP was motivated by competitive spite.

Romain Grosjean was excluded from sixth place at Monza after the FIA deemed his car illegal following a complaint regarding a part of the floor which was not in compliance with a technical directive issued earlier this summer.

Haas has now begun the process of appealing that decision with Steiner taking aim at the French manufacturer ahead of this weekend's race in Singapore.

“If they cannot beat you on the track, they try to beat you in court,” the Italian claimed. “That is what seems to be happening. You have to work hard to be envied. We’d rather work hard for it and fight even more.

“Sometimes, you have to do that [lodge complaints]. You take any approach in racing. Is it the right thing to do? I’ll let others determine that.”

Part of their appeal is that they had asked the FIA for a grace period of up to Singapore to make amendments to their floor, meaning the issue should not repeat itself, and Steiner doesn't expect any kind of hangover.

“This doesn’t distract me,” he said. “Our people know where they need to put the effort in.

“We don’t get distracted when we go racing. We try to always get good results in racing and leave the other stuff offline.”