Haas team principal Guenther Steiner should not have publicly criticised Mick Schumacher for the crash during a practice session in Hungary, ex-F1 racer Christian Klien has said.
The 2020 Formula 2 Champion crashed his difficult-to-drive Haas VF-21 in Free Practice Three (FP3), forcing him to sit out the session and resulting in a costly repair job.
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When asked about the incident, Steiner said it wasn’t the right time for Schumacher to be pushing and suggested he will stress to the F1 rookie that such collisions result in large expenses for the team.
“Drivers have to be able to assess when it is worth taking a risk,” Steiner said in a post-session interview.
“The third free practice session is not the right time for this. Maybe we have to sit down again and explain the big picture – that these accidents cause high costs!”
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Klien has fired back in Schumacher’s defence, saying the Haas team boss’ comments weren’t “appropriate.”
“He [Schumacher] doesn’t do it on purpose. What do you want with a car that doesn’t work? You have to push, and when you push, it sometimes goes over the limit,” Klien told SpeedWeek.
“That’s the way things happen in the first year. It’s stupid that Haas doesn’t have the budget, it hurts twice over,” he added.