Ex-F1 team boss makes rare defence for Yuki Tsunoda controversy

Guenther Steiner has come to the defence of Yuki Tsunoda after he was involved in controversy at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Tsunoda’s final act as a Red Bull driver was an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to halt McLaren’s Lando Norris in a last-ditch bid to try and help teammate Max Verstappen’s fading title hopes.

Norris had to clear traffic on his way to consolidating a third-place finish that was enough to crown him F1’s new world champion, and faced a potentially-awkward rival in the shape of Tsunoda’s Red Bull.

Tsunoda weaved to break the tow and swerved to the left on the long back straight but could not stop Norris from passing, with the Briton going all four wheels off the track to complete the move.

The incident was investigated by the stewards, who cleared Norris but gave Tsunoda a five-second time penalty for making “more than one change of direction to defend position”.

But former Haas team principal Steiner felt the punishment was unnecessary.

"I mean, obviously they would deserve one again because all this moving under braking has become trendy in Abu Dhabi," Steiner sarcastically told The Red Flags Podcast.

"Nothing should happen. This is racing. This is what we want to see, the spectator, the fans, want to see... We don't want to see the stewards getting popular with the people by handing out fines, getting attention.

"No, this was fair, it was racing. I think Yuki was on the edge of what he did. Lando was on the edge with it. It all worked out well. It gave us good moments of racing.

"I continue to say if he stopped doing all these things, I can say it, who the f*** is going to watch racing? They don't understand that because they want to be watched being stewards and then because they did it with Yuki, they had to do it with the other two guys, you know.

“It’s a long straight, it’s breaking the tow. It was not under braking, it was not brutal and Lando took the risk on the outside. Lando would have got past him in the next lap, but he was confident and that’s what we want to see from racing.”

Tsunoda’s move was criticised by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown during Sky Sports F1’s coverage of the finale.

"I think it was clearly the right decision. That was a dangerous and unnecessary manoeuvre,” Brown said.

“It's a team sport, so I'm not surprised the second car is going to help out, but there's got to be a limit.

“They're not driving the car so you've got to put that one on Yuki for, in my opinion, going over the line.

“That was a dangerous manoeuvre, but we're all good now."

Norris ultimately pipped Verstappen, who cruised to a dominant eighth victory of the season at Yas Marina, to the title by two points.