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Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner has hit back at criticism of Esteban Gutierrez's handling of blue flags, claiming he is "the best guy to get out of the way".
Gutierrez has been the centre of controversy surrounding blue flags in recent races, most notably with Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo.
But Steiner believes the criticism is unfair, saying that because it's happened two recently, that doesn't make him the worst driver to deal with the rule.
"It's like 'oh the worse guy at it' just the second time he does it. I think it's the opposite, normally he's the best guy to get out of the way," Steiner told ESPN. "Now he was just unlucky twice not to give someone fresh air all of a sudden when they want it, so for sure he jumps on it."
"Would it have changed anything for Ricciardo? I don't know, I guess no. The world is not perfect, live with it. For sure if he had lost a position, I understand he is pissed, but how many seconds was he behind?"
Steiner also belives that if Hamilton had not shown Gutierrez the middle finger in Hungary, the stewards would not have taken any action against the Haas driver.
"Last week he got five-second penalty, my opinion is the stewards reacted to a gesture Lewis made," he said. "We looked at the data and a lap before him Magnussen, I think it was... there was two tenths of a second difference. Lapping two tenths of a second is a very short period of time and that guy didn't get a five-second penalty."
"I don't think he's as bad as they think, but once you get one penalty for sure now Ricciardo was pissed because he couldn't get past him," he added. "But they have to realise one day they will be lapped and then they will [see] how they feel about it. If somebody says you need to get out of the way, you cannot just jump away."
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