SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium -- Haas boss Guenther Steiner believes Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg have moved on from their "fun" spat at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Magnussen and Hulkenberg had an explosive interaction in the TV pen following the race in Budapest. Hulkenberg congratulated the Haas driver for being "the most unsporting driver on the grid" following an incident which had seen him pushed wide late in the race, only for Magnussen to reply "suck my balls, mate" live on TV, a moment which quickly went viral on social media.
Steiner criticised Hulkenberg after the incident, calling the German a bully, only to run into him at the airport the following morning -- which allowed the pair to reconcile. The Haas boss believes the pair have put the incident behind them.
"It's been handled fine," Steiner said. "At some stage there is a cut-off. It's getting old, no-one wants to hear old news. Nothing more needs to be said, I don't think we need to have a hugging session between Nico and Kevin! I think we have our standpoint and he has his own, I don't think we need to get into 'he said', 'he said'.
"Just move on and we learned a lot about what you can do in Turn 1 and I think Kevin is ready for it, and we go racing again. It was fun, but fun has a sell-by date. If you keep on going on about the same thing it gets old."
When asked if he'd spoken to Magnussen about it, Steiner replied: "No, it didn't need it. We had a few jokes on WhatsApp and that was it, but no need to make a meal about it. I found it quite entertaining!
"Sometimes you have to say what you think, because I do! So I can't say he should be corporate talking. Sometimes I cannot stop myself.
Formula One drivers rarely clash in the TV pen in the way Magnussen and Hulkenberg did. Though the incident created a lot of interest among fans Steiner thinks it shows why F1 cannot try to fabricate feuds between drivers.
"I'm a believer that you cannot make up theatre. If it is fake, it doesn't have the effect. This was all emotions and I stand fully behind things like this, I would never say 'you shouldn't say this'. If you try to make it up it doesn't work. We know you can try to be funny, but this came out of the blue. We were like, 'What...what did you just say!' But if you try to do it every race it gets old pretty quick."