Steiner left to reflect on the worst ever race

Kevin Magnussen finished 17th while Banbury team-mate Romain Grosjean retired six laps shy of the checkered flag in Sunday’s eighth round of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship at Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet.

Steiner said: “Unfortunately this race weekend was the worst since we started the team. We need to try to find a way out of our issues, this is not where we want to be.”

Magnussen started 15th and picked up two positions over the first ten laps of his initial run before dropping back to 16th. He pitted on lap 16 and resumed at the back of the field. He was able to advance three positions before the checkered flag.

Grosjean began the race on hard tires from his 16th grid position, dropped two spots on the opening lap to 18th but then worked his way up to 13th on lap 20 before pitting on lap 32. He resumed just in front of Magnussen in 17th, gaining one position before he retired on its 45th lap, two down on the race leaders.

The team has dropped one position from eighth to ninth in the FIA F1 Constructor’s Championship with 16 points, one behind eighth-place Toro Rosso.

Grosjean said: “I got the maximum from the car but it was just not good enough. Even though the balance felt okay, we were just very slow. We’re just really struggling. It’s hard to retire in front of your home crowd but we were far from the points anyway. I think it was the right decision.”

Magnussen said: “Obviously our pace is the biggest challenge at the moment. We just lack pace sometimes and Sunday was one of those days.”