Former Haas Formula 1 team principal Guenther Steiner has launched into a scathing assessment of former race director Eduardo Freitas.
The criticism was sparked by widespread claims of ‘British bias’ towards Lando Norris from the stewards after the Singapore Grand Prix.
McLaren driver Norris made contact with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and teammate Oscar Piastri at the start of the 62-lap race at the Marina Bay Circuit, with his front-wing endplate left hanging for the remainder of the event.
Lando Norris, McLaren, at the SIngapore Grand Prix with damage to his front wing. | McLaren Racing
Such damage has previously seen a black flag with an orange disc waved to indicate that he has damage deemed dangerous enough to need to pit for repairs, which would have ruined his race.
But with the flag not waved, and Norris continued to eventually finish third and cut the gap to Piastri in the race for the drivers’ title down to 22 points.
Steiner’s 2022 issues
Steiner was in charge at Haas during the 2022 season where the team was repeatedly hit by the black and orange flag being waved for damage to one of its cars.
When Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso lost a wing mirror in that year’s United States Grand Prix, the team even protested the lack of punishment with the FIA, feeling it had been hard done-by across the season.
Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
So when asked to cast judgement over the suggested bias shown towards Norris in Singapore, Steiner explained that the scenario had nothing to do with nationality.
While never naming Freitas, who took over F1 race director duties alongside Niels Wittich after the axing of Michael Masi following the controversial end to the 2021 campaign, the subject of Steiner’s criticism is given away by the reference to the World Endurance Championship, where Frietas occupies an equivalent role.
“I need to give you the full story behind all this bulls**t here,”told the Red Flags Podcast. “At the time, there was a race director, and he wasn’t British. The guy was just not up to being an F1 race director.
“He did, I think, five or six races, and then they sent him back where he came from, to WEC, because the guy was obsessed by parts on the car. We explained to this guy, ‘if it is like this, we can explain how the wing is made, the part will not fall off’.
He has been our race director since the championship began. The man who leads the team that ensures everyone is racing in the safest way possible. He turns 60 today and we’d like you to join us in wishing Eduardo Freitas a very happy birthday.#WEC #LeMans24 pic.twitter.com/rnn9FNOpuL
— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) October 27, 2021
“He didn’t care. ‘Oh, it’s dangerous, you need to come in’.
“I don’t know how many times we lost points because of this dude, and then how it was sorted was, all of a sudden, Fernando Alonso loses a rearview mirror, and that was ok! Then, Mohammed Ben Sulayem got involved and changed the rule so that it’s actually ok to have pieces hanging loose.”
Rui Marques is now F1’s race director after Wittich left the post in 2024.
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