Haas team principal Günther Steiner claimed “nobody puts a gun on your head” to cast votes in F1 after Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing, expressed the need for ballots to be held in secret.
In a column on the McLaren website, Brown explained the need for F1 teams to secretly vote on regulatory changes to prevent customer teams from being pressured by suppliers or affiliated teams.
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Haas is linked to Ferrari by an engine deal and through its Maranello hub, but Steiner has denied ever being encouraged to vote against his will.
“You always talk to people,” said Steiner. “It’s one of those processes where you talk to people about how to vote and which direction to go, which is normal when you’re running a business.
“But no one ever said – don’t take it for a fact – put a gun to your head here [and says] “You have to vote this one”.
“Did I have a gun put on my head? No, nobody does that. You argue about it, you see what is best. ”
Steiner has also declared himself confused by Brown’s secret ballot, as the process is already in place under current regulations.
“I don’t vote against my own will,” added Steiner. “I will not do that. I know this secret ballot was always there. It’s not about anything new. It’s in the regulations.
“You can just apply it and I don’t know what it will achieve because we are always voting on what is good for us and in one way or another that we will continue to do, secretly or non-secretly.
“I’m not afraid to tell other people what I voted for. It doesn’t make any difference to me, other than it gets more complex than it already is and maybe costs more money because we now need an outside company to manage our voting.
“If Zak thinks this will make a difference, I hope he pays the bill for the outside company as well.”
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