Steiner believes rival teams are "bitching" about Magnussen

Team principal at Haas Guenther Steiner reckons that rivals teams have started to "bitch" about Kevin Magnussen in an attempt to knock is confidence. The Haas driver currently sits eighth in the World Championship picking up 45 points prior to the summer break.

Steiner insists that the complaints over the team radios about his driver are attempts to knock Magnussen off course. The Austrian says they've failed but still isn't impressed.

"We want him to race and sometimes you have to ruffle feathers if you want to get something," Steiner told AutoSport.

"Nobody gives anything for free here. People say he does it on purpose: no. He wants to make a mark but he doesn't drive aggressive. He doesn't say, 'I'm going to go aggressive here, I'm not a pushover'.

"That creates more criticism [from] the established drivers. 'Is this young guy coming and wanting to tell me, I cannot get past? I will bitch about it'.

"Everybody plays the game here and you need to. I'm not critiquing other drivers, they try their best to knock his confidence but they don't achieve it."

Magnussen currently has just three points on his licence. Two came from his incident with Gasly in Baku. He will need 12 before getting a race ban.