Steiner prepared to deal with possible impact of Ukraine crisis on team

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In the round-up: Haas team principal Guenther Steiner says the team will deal with any potential sanctions against Russia, Russian businesses or individuals which may arise from the growing crisis over Ukraine.

In brief

Haas prepared for commercial impact of possible Russia sanctions

Steiner said Haas will “deal with” any impact of sanctions against Russia which may arise from the escalating crisis over Ukraine. The United States and the European Union have threatened to impose new sanctions against the Russian Federation should its government authorise an invasion of Ukrainian territory, following a build-up of military hardware around the country’s borders.

Haas’s title sponsor is Russian fertilizer producer Uralkali. Its billionaire CEO, Dmitry Mazepin, is the father of the team’s driver Nikita, and met with Russian president Vladimir Putin last month.

Steiner said yesterday he is prepared to “deal with” the effects of any sanctions which could have an impact on the team. “We are not getting involved in these politics, because they are too far up for me anyway or for us,” he stated.

“Obviously, like everybody watches what is going on in the moment in the world, it’s all over the world that things are going on. So we watch it and if there is something, we will deal with it. But at the moment, we don’t get involved in it because we don’t have a vote on these things, to be honest, and I’m glad that we don’t have a vote on this.

“We are here for the sport and that is what they are doing. Then [if] something is coming up, sanctions or whatever, we will deal with it. But in the moment there is nothing we can do about it.”

Ben Sulayem hails “new era” for FIA at World Motor Sport Council meeting

New FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has presided over his first meeting of the World Motor Sport Council, with the council approving a revised structure for the organisation among other changes.

A “new and robust governance process” was approved, including the creation of the role of FIA chief executive officer as well as calling for an independent financial audit of the entire governing body. A number of new members of the FIA Senate were also appointed in an effort to increase diversity and provide greater representation of the FIA’s international membership.

“A new era has begun for the FIA, through the creation of a governance framework founded on openness and global diversity,” Ben Sulayem said. “Responsibility and authority of World Councils, which emanate from our Members, will be increased. A more effective oversight model will be designed, stakeholders’ priorities will be aligned, and a responsibly profitable FIA operation will be ensured.”

The role of FIA single seater commissioner – previously held by F1 race director Michael Masi – remains currently unfilled, as is the role of rally commissioner. Former Williams technical director Sam Michael has replaced his Williams predecessor, Patrick Head, as the head of the FIA’s Safety Commission.

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Comment of the day

After Haas became the first F1 team to unveil an image of how their 2022 car should look ahead of the upcoming season, @roger-ayles is concerned that cars may start to strike too close a resemblance to each other with the new regulations…

To me that is a big issue as part of the allure of F1 for me, what makes it stand out above the rest. Part of the thing that hooked me in the 70s and has kept me hooked ever since is that side of the sport. The technical side, watching cars develop, watching teams innovate, seeing cars that look different with teams developing them in different directions and adding new bits over a year and coming up with new ideas & concepts.

I have always and will always prefer a grid of varying design ideas and different looking cars over a grid of identical looking ones. That is why I watch F1 and have largely turned off everything else as they have gone towards spec/single make categories. I just have little interest in watching those sorts of categories as I just find the lack of development and freedom to design or innovate to be quite boring.

I just hope things are not as bad as I fear they will be because if it does go psuedo-spec, over restrictive and does become the IndyCar-plus model I don’t think I’ll still be watching because it will mean that much of the things I enjoy will no longer exist to keep me hooked. That is my fear and nothing Liberty have said or done has calmed that fear, simply solidified it.
@Roger-ayles

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Tom Watson and Ian Hayward!

On this day in motorsport

Lotus E20 launch, 2012
Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean presented the car both made their returns to F1 in today in 2012

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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24 comments on “Steiner prepared to deal with possible impact of Ukraine crisis on team”

  1. I loved the Lotus from 2012. Out of all those stepped noses, Team Enstone’s was the most elegant.

    1. I agree, the most elegant.

    2. To be fair, that’s like saying that you have a preference for a particular STD. Those stepped noses were an absolute blight on the sport.

      1. Huh, yeah, looking at it once again, mybe it was a nice car and nice livery, but the nose I can’t like.
        Maybe the teams took the idea from the Fiat Multipla – a car what I was not able to like back in it’s time.
        Although, maybe I have never expected this:
        https://twitter.com/fiat_fan_club/status/1453663256095117315
        Looks like, more steps looks better :D

        1. Coventry Climax
          5th February 2022, 13:47

          There’s two last steps missing: a roofrack, starting at the rear windows, and then a big spoiler on top of that.

          1. A neon system, and a wheel spinner (bling-bling styled rim) also, plus what you mentioned, a tribute spoiler to F1’s high wing-era on the top of the roof rack.
            Something like this:
            https://twitter.com/tfsquareone/status/1275470956568420354

            As I browsed for pictures like this, I have spotted a really interesting thing. There was a cable running up to the Matra MS10’s similarly high rear wing. It even looks tilted at some pictures. What was the purpose of that cable, it was really adjustable, and tiltable while driving? The cable even hangs quite loose, but that is what I like in the looks of the seventies’ and the eighties’ F1 cars, they look fearsomely purpose built.

          2. Jockey Ewing, yes, that cable was used to adjust the angle of the wing – when teams began using high wings during the late 1960s, teams also began fitting mechanisms that allowed the drivers to adjust the wing angle (which was also copied from the Chaparral sportscars of that era).

            It was a fairly crude binary system, with one setting to flatten the wing angle on the straights to reduce drag, which they could then switch to a higher angle of attack for more downforce in corners (i.e. you didn’t have a range of settings to choose from). Most of the time, they were mechanically operated – Ferrari did have a more sophisticated electro-hydraulic system though, as did Matra.

            As with the high wings themselves, the FIA would ban the use of variable wings when they mandated that the wings had to be rigidly fixed to the chassis of the car – Lotus, which used bungee cords, had a near miss when Hill had one of the cords snap on his car, and the risk of another repeat accident pushed the sport towards that ban.

  2. playstation361
    5th February 2022, 0:35

    These guys are the real drivers.

  3. Steiner deals with threats of world domination like a true Austrian.

    1. like a true Austrian.

      From Italy :P

      1. With US citizenship….

        1. Hint: not talking about Schwarznegger.

  4. It’s amazing that there is non-stop talk of what Russian boogeyman might do, while the biggest F1 sponsor, and Aston Martin’s new sponsor – Saudi Arabia – is bombing Yemen into oblivion for years, and its F1 presence is only growing.

    Don’t forget, that for all the talk of what Russians might do, US and UK spent past 20+ years going around the world, bombing various Middle East countries into stone age, creating absolute instability and hellscape. And all this time they are telling you that Russians are up to something. Amazing what people will believe.

      1. Did you forget or just purposely ignore that just a couple of years ago there were people getting murdered in the Ukraine at the hands of Russian soldiers?

        1. This is not the place to talk about politics. As for soldiers and murders, I believe US army killed far more civilians than Russian army did (and the last time they did so, as Soviet army, they were mostly killing their own civilians. This has nothing to do with that and anyone who takes sides believing there are sides of good and evil here is a naive child. As for Ukraine, that’s such a complex story, it’s a divided country like many are or were in the past. I wish they would deal with their own problems without dragging us all into the mud.

          1. As for Ukraine, that’s such a complex story, it’s a divided country like many are or were in the past. I wish they would deal with their own problems without dragging us all into the mud.

            If this is not the place for politics, don’t write anything like that. Not only here, but anywhere.

            You have 0 understanding of what you’re talking about. Zero. We never were a divided country until russians invaded our territory. And we don’t drag any other country to the mud – that the job russians do. Quite successfully thanks to European politicians who are ready to sell their own people for money. Remember MH17? Russians killed innocent kids on MH17. But who cares about them, right? Nah, European hypocritic policians keep it quiet, swept it under the carpet.

            And what’s with the dumb logic “Oh, if Americans killed some people in the past, then russians can kill some Ukrainians too”?

        2. amian,
          People murdered anywhere is a crime. Though, the people that in the last 20 years killed more than a million people in Iraq, thousands of people in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and then abandoning them to the Talibans cannot lecture other countries about war and their aggressive approach towards their neighbours.

    1. Kimo Villarimo
      5th February 2022, 10:06

      Caveat: I’m American.

      The US is and as been for most of its history, addicted to war. Since Eisenhower warning and his coining of the phrase “the military industrial complex”, it has all come to fruition. From Iraq to Afghanistan to its support of Yemen, it’s always lloking for its next wargasm.

      All pretenses to war and the wrapping of it all of it by the main stream media, from the WMD’s (never found), Saddams connection to Bin Laden (proved wrong) are all manufactured truths to make trillions for the defense industry. America is a war sow.

      Unfortunately, the political donations by the F1 community (if any) don’t compare to the billions that the defense industry contributes to the corrupt ruling political class of America. They have their priorities unfortunately.

  5. Not the first time RB has done snow running with spike tyres.

    That training device is interesting.

    Nice Alfa Romeo.

    I see what K-Mag did, LOL. BTW, when I clicked & got to his Instagram account I found out something I was unaware about until today: He became a father a little over a year ago.

    I guess Kart #23 was unavailable for Albon’s use.

    I’m not as pessimistic as COTD.

  6. Get your skates on, RB8:
    Is that the Pirelli Sottozero, or something else?
    I mean these tyres look tall, and much less wide.

    Bottas got in some cool car as well.

    Kevin Magnussen & Herbie: I joked about this livery-relationship of Haas and Herbie, before the 2021 season, especially the Haas’ car number was placed in similarly styled circle as well :D

    1. …especially as the…

  7. I do share the concerns of & those things @Roger-ayles lists are also elements of F1 I really enjoy a lot & things that have helped to keep me hooked over the past 32-33 years.

    The other thing for me as well isn’t just that the cars will look very similar, But that we won’t see as much development as often (Something i’ve seen a few teams say will likely be the case) which will take a lot of the interest away from F1 for me as seeing teams bring those little developments almost every weekend & watching the cars develop & improve as the season goes on is something I get a lot out of.

    I just hope things end up not been as bad as I worry they will be. We shall see.

Comments are closed.