Guenther Steiner took issue with two factors surrounding Max Verstappen’s much-debated five-second penalty at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Firstly, he believes the “games played” at the start where Verstappen picked up his penalty were “part of racing”, and if the FIA stewards were still set on punishing Verstappen for his incident with Oscar Piastri, then Steiner said it should have been the standard 10 seconds, as he tore into the first-lap mitigation theory.

Max Verstappen Saudi GP penalty: Fair or harsh?

Polesitter Verstappen was hit with a five-second penalty after cutting the Turn 1/2 chicane at the start, he and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri having made a beeline for the apex with Piastri picking up the inside line, leaving Verstappen on the outside to take to the run-off and re-join ahead.

Red Bull did not instruct Verstappen to yield the lead to Piastri, with the stewards subsequently dishing out that five-second punishment. Verstappen served it at his pit-stop and finished the Saudi Arabian GP in P2, 2.8 seconds behind Piastri.

And during an appearance on the Red Flags podcast, former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner was asked if he felt Verstappen was right to be p*ssed over the verdict, one which he refrained from commenting on post-race.

“Yes. I think I would be p*ssed,” Steiner responded.

Verstappen avoided the standard 10-second penalty for the incident, with the stewards using the fact that it happened on the first lap as a mitigating circumstance.

Steiner was not having any of that one, instead suggesting that a penalty verdict should be black or white, no ifs or buts.

“Now we have mitigating circumstances,” he said. “Either you’re wrong or you’re right in life.

“So they are not sure if it is right or wrong, so let’s make it five instead of 10, you know, let’s give him a little bit of a discount here.

“If you make an armed robbery without bullets in your gun, is that mitigating or not?”

At that point asked if he thought Verstappen was in the wrong, or if he was quibbling with the fact that Verstappen got a five-second penalty instead of 10, Steiner clarified: “I quibble with both.”

So, if the standard 10-second penalty had been applied to Verstappen, would Steiner then have been okay with the situation?

“No, I wouldn’t be okay, no,” he replied, “but then they would have made a clear message.

“Because for me, in my opinion, it was racing. Obviously, there is games played here, and that’s part of racing. You try to keep your position, and you play with that.

“And I think Max was in front, and therefore how he played that, it worked for him. It was like, as they said, mitigating circumstances, it was the first lap.

“If you do it on another lap… But you’re racing. That is what racing is about. Should he go off and brake and let the other one by? No.

“In my opinion, it was like, ‘Okay, it was a penalty, we think so, but it was the first turn, so let’s halve the penalty’.

“Under my honest opinion, Oscar would have overtaken him anyway, either through the pit-stop with the strategy [or on track], because he was clearly in control after he got in front, you know, he was, not playing, obviously he was racing, but he was no fear.

“But it would have done a lot better than waiting until he comes in and then Max comes out second.

“It’s always, ‘Don’t upset anybody’.

“I mean, a judge, if he’s sitting there, obviously, if he gives someone a lifelong sentence without parole, and he knows that the guy is not going to be happy with him, but that’s his job. I’m sorry, he’s just doing his job, you know.

“So, sometimes, if you feel like it is, ‘You did wrong’, give him 10 seconds and justify it and explain it, you know, end of story. If you’re, ‘We have a different rule for the first lap’, it’s wishy washy again.”

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Former Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley, who is now team principal at Sauber, claimed that if he were still at Red Bull, then he would have told Verstappen to give the place back to Piastri, thus taking away any penalty risk.

Steiner believes Wheatley would have been met with a similar response to what Verstappen told Sky F1 journalist David Croft, who was instructed to “focus on commentating” after asking a question relating to Verstappen’s Red Bull future.

When Wheatley’s account of how he would have handled the Verstappen and Piastri situation was brought up, Steiner said: “That’s sitting on the fence, because when you’re sitting there [on the pit wall], you want your driver to win. I mean, you need to be with your driver.

“And do you think, honestly, Max would have listened to Jonathan Wheatley [laughs]? I can tell you that answer, it’s like he told Crofty, ‘You go and be a journalist. Focus on that one’.”

Piastri’s victory in Saudi Arabia lifted him to the top of the Drivers’ Championship, where he sits 10 points ahead of McLaren team-mate Lando Norris and 12 clear of Verstappen.

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