At the time of the resumption of the race after a short safety car period, Mick Schumacher was in a promising ninth position, which meant his first points in Formula 1, but his race ended shortly after after a collision with his friend and compatriot Sebastian Vettel.
Meanwhile, Kevin Magnussen lost his track position when he fitted new tires at the restart of the race, a strategy that did not work out as the Danish driver hoped and also left him without points.
In the closing stages of the race, the veteran Haas driver was also involved in a touchdown with Lance Stroll and the team retired his car just before the checkered flag.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, Steiner was quite disappointed with what had happened: “I think everyone regrouped, we got in a good position and then with 10 laps to go they threw it all away.
“Who wouldn’t be disappointed after a weekend like this? I think we have no one else to blame but ourselves.”
“We were up, in the points, it was possible even with both cars, and then we lost everything at the restart of the race.
“Very disappointing, because I think the guys did very well on the restart, but then they made some mistakes and we ended up with nothing. Or even worse, we ended up with a lot of broken parts.”
Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-22, Mick Schumacher, Haas VF-22
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Asked if he thought Mick Schumacher could have been more patient, he said: “I’m not the driver. I haven’t spoken to him, but obviously, we can’t lose points like that.”
Steiner confirmed that Magnussen had asked to make his safety car stop on track, which arrived just one lap after some of his rivals had pitted, and that was another key factor in Haas not scoring points in Miami.
“He was demanding to pit. Our suggestion was that he shouldn’t, but he said he wanted new tyres. And after the race he told us: ‘It was my fault, I shouldn’t have done it’.”
The director of the American team acknowledged that the team’s current state of form is motivating, but recalled that they cannot afford to lose more opportunities to score points.
“It’s a positive thing, but you have to know how to use the potential that we have. Having a car like this is basically a missed opportunity. I’m quite disappointed after this event.”
“Now we have to go back to the factory and see what we are going to do in Spain and Monaco. We have to do better, because we have everything we need to do better.
“The whole team was left with nothing. I mean, for me, the team is the most important thing.”
“We can’t keep saying there’s a race next weekend, because suddenly it’s the end of the year and you’re waiting for race 24 and it doesn’t come,” concluded a disappointed Steiner .
