Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean have played down talk of tension after another incident together at the German Grand Prix.
Having taken each other out as a result of Lap 1 contact at Silverstone, the Haas drivers banged wheels again while battling in the points at Hockenheim, fortunately with no consequences.
However, after the moment both drivers came on the radio to criticise the other with Grosjean stating “He will never learn!”, while Magnussen claimed he was “not comfortable racing” against the Frenchman.
“I think in the heat of the moment you feel that you’re in the right,” the Dane said as both drivers faced the media in Hungary.
“Then you analyse things after and you see that it’s more level and not as big a deal as it feels like on track.
“At the end of the day, I don’t feel like it’s a big deal and we will try everything we can not to have these issues again.
“I think it became a very big deal after Silverstone when we punctured each other, apart from that, the end of the story is we respect each other and we want to do the best for the team.”
During his response, Grosjean jokingly suggested Magnussen was still at fault for the incident but that it “doesn’t matter” and believed the radio comments were simply ‘spur of the moment’ remarks.
“On the football pitch you don’t have any microphones listening in,” he said. “The team-mates can say within the team they are not happy with each other, but you’re not saying that team are having any issues.
“Formula 1 is great in that everything is broadcasted, but it also makes a story out of nothing.
“Our relationship is good. When you’re driving at 300kph, obviously you’re not going to say ‘oh please…I think, you know, I was in my right and he was in his wrong, do you mind if you give me the position back, if I may…’
“No, you’re just going to say ‘f*** off, just give me the position’, so unless you want us to be very, very boring then I’ll remove the microphone from the helmet.”
Also Read:
- Haas on recent driver battles: ‘Common sense needs to come into play’
- Grosjean: Haas were unlucky at Silverstone, not stupid
Team boss Guenther Steiner had earlier admitted he may consider imposing a ‘no racing’ policy between the two drivers, but wasn’t sure if he would go that far yet.
“I’m going to sit down with them today,” Steiner told Crash.net on Thursday. “Let’s see what comes out of it, how they see it, and what we need to do to go forward in the future.
“Maybe it ends up that we tell them what to do, decide who is doing what when they are close to each other.
“When they are close to each other, I think we need to take it out of their control who is doing what.
“I think I have to [be firmer]. It’s the only solution, to be firm with them, and tell them what to do, and when they get close to each other, go from there.”