Steiner: Magnussen's wild reputation is wrong

Thursday, 17 January 2019 at 16:28

Kevin Magnussen won't win any popularity contests among his Formula 1 rivals but Haas team chief Guenther Steiner believes that the Dane has an unfair reputation, citing super-licence penalty points as proof.

Strife and clashes between Magnussen and fellow drivers are well documented, but his boss Steiner stands by his man, "Let's put that one right: he is the guy with the least penalties."

The "penalties" he is referring to are the points drivers receive on their super-licences, the punishment meted out by FIA race stewards for their on-track shenanigans.

Along with Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo, Magnussen has only two penalty points - least of their peers, while Haas teammate Romain Grosjean, Lance Stroll and Max Verstappen top the table with seven penalty-points each.

It was not a given that 26-year-old Magnussen would be retained by the American team beyond last season, but Steiner ignored the bad press and kept the faith.

He told Motorsport Network, "He somehow got such a bad reputation and the perception is out there that he's this guy which is just wild. Which is wrong.

"Because look at the statistics. We must be objective. Not subjective. Objective is: how many penalties has he got?"

Although Magnussen scored 52 of his team's 93 points, 80% of these were scored during the first half of the season prompting suggestions he tends to lose interest midway through seasons.

But Steiner rubbished the idea, "There is this thing out there that Kevin Magnussen's second half of the season always is bad. Again, where is this coming from?"

"He has done some good races in the second half of the season [in 2018]. Was he as good as the first half? No. But I would not jump to the conclusion that it has to be like this."

"I don't think he is as bad as people make him out to be. He's a racer. He drives. He fights for his territory. And that's what we pay him to do actually. We don't want somebody who gets passed by everybody."

Along with Mercedes, Haas will field the same driver line-up as last year in 2019 while the other eight teams will deal with new drivers in their garages.

This shows the belief that Steiner has in Romain Grosjean who had a wayward spell before composing himself and finishing the season strongly.

It was a rough patch for Grosjean whose reputation as a "first-lap nutcase" came back to haunt him, but again Steiner played down the saga, "Let's not exaggerate. It was not huge, tremendous or whatever. He had a dip. Leave it at that. It was a dip."

"He lost the key, he found the key. I don't know what it is and that's honest. He said: I found the key again. Since then it was good," added Steiner of the erratic Frenchman.

Current penalty points per driver and the reasons for each penalty:

Driver	Points	Given	Race	Reason	Expires
Romain Grosjean	7	2	Spanish GP	Collision	13-May-19
		2	French GP	Collision	24-Jun-19
		2	Singapore GP	Ignoring blue flags	16-Sep-19
		1	US GP	Collision	21-Oct-19
Max Verstappen	7	2	Chinese GP	Collision	15-Apr-19
		2	Italian GP	Collision	02-Sep-19
		2	Singapore GP	Ignoring yellow flags	29-Sep-19
		1	Japanese GP	Unsafe rejoining of track	07-Oct-19
Lance Stroll	7	3	Austrian GP	Ignoring blue flags	01-Jul-19
		2	Japanese GP	Forcing driver off track	07-Oct-19
		2	US GP	Collision	21-Oct-19
Sergey Sirotkin	6	2	Azerbaijan GP	Collision	29-Apr-19
		2	French GP	Too slow under SC	24-Jun-19
		2	Singapore GP	Forcing driver off track	16-Sep-19
Brendon Hartley	6	2	Bahrain GP	Did not re-establish starting order	08-Apr-19
		2	Bahrain GP	Collision	08-Apr-19
		2	Mexican GP	Collision	28-Oct-19
Esteban Ocon	6	2	Japanese GP	Too fast under red	06-Oct-19
		3	Brazilian GP	Collision	11-Nov-19
		1	Abu Dhabi GP	Gaining advantage off track	25-Nov-19
Fernando Alonso	6	1	Japanese GP	Gaining advantage off track	07-Oct-19
		2	Brazilian GP	Ignoring blue flags	11-Nov-19
		3x1	Abu Dhabi GP	Gaining advantage off track	25-Nov-19
Marcus Ericsson	5	3	Chinese GP	Too fast under double yellows	14-Apr-19
Marcus Ericsson	5	2	Azerbaijan GP	Collision	29-Apr-19
Sergio Perez	5	2	Azerbaijan GP	Overtaking before SC line	29-Apr-19
Sergio Perez	5	3	Singapore GP	Collision	16-Sep-19
Sebastian Vettel	5	2	French GP	Collision	24-Jun-19
		1	Austrian GP	Blocking	30-Jun-19
		2	US GP	Too fast under red	19-Oct-19
Pierre Gasly	4	2	Chinese GP	Collision	15-Apr-19
Pierre Gasly	4	2	British GP	Collision	08-Jul-19
Valtteri Bottas	4	2	Hungarian GP	Collision	29-Jul-19
Valtteri Bottas	4	2	Belgian GP	Collision	26-Aug-19
Nico Hulkenberg	3	3	Belgian GP	Collision	26-Aug-19
Carlos Sainz	3	2	German GP	Overtaking under SC	22-Jul-19
Carlos Sainz	3	1	US GP	Gaining advantage off track	21-Oct-19
Stoffel Vandoorne	3	1	Spanish GP	Did not keep right of bollard	13-May-19
Stoffel Vandoorne	3	2	Brazilian GP	Ignoring blue flags	11-Nov-19
Kevin Magnussen	2	2	Azerbaijan GP	Collision	29-Apr-19
Kimi Raikkonen	2	2	British GP	Collision	08-Jul-19
Daniel Ricciardo	2	2	Australian GP	Too fast under red	23-Mar-19