Former Formula 1 team principal Guenther Steiner has hit out at FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem after the Emirati complained about bias in the British media.
Ben Sulayem said he has not been fairly treated by the British media following comments by design guru Adrian Newey, who said Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel faced poor coverage from the UK.
“I respect Max [Verstappen] because I’m a driver, I was a champion and I respect winners and champions,” Ben Sulayem told Autosport.
“I see he had his share [of mistreatment], but let’s talk about me. If you look at the British media and what they did to me… For God’s sake, they convicted me.”
But former Haas boss Steiner, whose second book “Unfiltered” was released on Thursday, told City AM that freedom of speech trumps Ben Sulayem’s feelings and insists everybody should be open to counter points to what they say.
“I always think if you say something, people have got the right to say they don’t like it. But you cannot tell them that they’re wrong,” the Italian Steiner said.
“For me freedom of speech is a very important thing. I don’t like what some of the people say. Do I get upset about it? Maybe. But can I stop them? No, I cannot stop and I don’t want to stop them, because of freedom of speech.
“Everybody is entitled to their opinion. I don’t have to agree with their opinion. I have got that freedom and the same is for him [Ben Sulayem].
“Okay, I ruffled some feathers, but I cannot say that because you don’t agree with me, you’re a bad person. No, absolutely not.”
Ben Sulayem crackdown
Ben Sulayem wanted to crack down on swearing over team radios, something Verstappen has criticised.
Added Steiner more widely on the principle of freedom of speech: “We can agree to disagree. It’s fine, life goes on. He said something people didn’t like, that’s it. Get over it. Move on.”
“That’s how I would handle it but he [Ben Sulayem] kept on going, about [things like] swearing because people critiqued him for it.
“If you work with Liberty Media, you know what they are doing. They make F1 better.They make it just bigger.”
Ben Sulayem also faced criticism over alleged historic sexist remarks, reportedly saying he does “not like women who think they are smarter than men” in 2001 – something the FIA said does “not reflect the president’s beliefs”.