Renault rejects Haas claim it broke 'gentleman's agreement'

Renault F1 executive director Marcin Budkowski denies the French outfit broke a long standing "gentleman's agreement" between teams when it protested Romain Grosjean's Haas at Monza.

The Haas driver was excluded from the results of the Italian Grand Prix following a post-race protest lodged by Renault and a subsequent inspection that revealed a technical infringement linked to the has VF-18's floor.

Haas team boss Guenther Steiner accused Renault of breaking a inter-team pact by which an outfit shall not be protested by a rival after a race without a prior warning of its intent to do so.

• Haas unhappy with Renault's non-respect of inter-team pact

However, Budkowski argued that an FIA technical directive published after the Canadian Grand Prix back in June left Haas with ample time to address its floor infringement.

"We all look at each other’s cars on a regular basis," Budkowski told Autosport.

"Us and I think quite a few other teams spotted a few races ago, because I think it was a floor that was introduced in Canada.

"It’s true that there hasn’t been a protest for a long time. It’s not a question of a gentleman’s agreement or not a gentleman’s agreement, they were given a number of races by the FIA to make that floor legal."

Given the extended period between the Canadian and Italian races, which allowed teams ample time to put their affairs in order, Budkowski insists Haas were not caught by surprise.

"We didn’t have a problem with the time they were given. But they didn’t respect this time," explained the Renault manager.

"I don’t think they were really caught by surprise there.

"What I think Guenther [Steiner] is probably referring to is that if we spotted something illegal on a car, we wouldn’t protest immediately, we would probably talk to the FIA or to a team before to sort it out."

"The TD (technical directive) was pretty public, wasn’t it? We were expecting like everybody else that they would come with a floor that complies with the technical regulations in Monza. We were surprised that they didn’t."

Steiner invoked Renault's will to preserve its "best of the rest" fourth-place position in the Constructors' standings as a justification for the protest.

But Budkowski denied the team's position in the championship was the basis of its protest.

"After the race we gathered and we decided whether or not we were happy to let it go and have a car that was blatantly illegal, and in the face of a TD that it didn’t comply with," he added.

"We decided that we were not happy with competing with a car that didn’t comply with the technical regulations, it’s as simple as that."

Haas has appealed the FIA's Italian Grand Prix decision, and its case will be heard in Paris on November 1.

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