03/09/2016
NEWS STORY
As Max Verstappen continues to dominate the headlines for his questionable standards, one tends to forget that several other drivers out there have history.
None more so than Romain Grosjean who was banned for one race following the huge accident he caused at Spa in 2012, one that probably still causes Fernando Alonso nightmares.
The ban, and subsequent time spent with a psychologist helped shape the driver we see today, a driver newbies Haas wish to retain.
Asked at the official press conference if the team had 'got what it wanted' from the Frenchman, Steiner said: "We got everything that we expected, what we hoped to get.
"He took us along very good," he continued. "He's got quite a lot of points for a new team, he got them for us, so I think he delivered what he had to deliver and our plans are to continue with him for next year, so I think we are pretty happy and we want to continue."
However, the Italian didn't sound quite so convincing in terms of his teammate, Esteban Gutierrez, who, it is fair to say, has had a troubled season and suffered more than his fair share of issues.
"I think it was a little bit of a rocky start for him and not only down to him," said Steiner. "When we had an issue with the car it normally was with his car. He had the accident in Australia with Alonso running into him. There seems very few times he had an ‘eventless', if you can say, race weekend.
"I think he has developed and matured," he continued. "Having been in F1 and then out of it for a year, I would say that makes it more difficult than coming in new, because he had been with Ferrari as their reserve or development driver, so he has seen a lot of stuff and then he comes in and has to race again.
"Also, the competition against Romain, which is not a bad driver, he's good, and trying to do better than him is quite difficult, so maybe he put himself under a little bit too much pressure in the beginning, but all in all I think he's doing a good job in the moment."
That said, the Italian hinted that the choice of teammate for Grosjean, should he remain, could be influenced by outside sources.
"Ferrari helped us out this year to find a driver, because last year we were looking for good drivers and they had one with Esteban so we took him.
"In the future, we haven't spoken about that a lot so if Ferrari has got a good development driver in their stable which they want to bring along and it's maybe too early to take him into their team, because Ferrari is Ferrari, they don't want to test a driver, they need to have a finished product there. So if they ask us to have him for a year or two, to develop him, why not but at the moment these discussions are not taking place.
"But if there is a good driver in the future, we always talk with Ferrari and we are pretty close to them as everybody knows, for sure. It's similar like Mercedes does maybe with Manor, they've got two drivers there at Manor who they developed because they've got Mercedes engines, but there is nothing in the pipeline at the moment."