Force India dismisses "gentlemen's agreement" surrounding Haas disqualification

Force India technical director Andrew Green has rubbished comments made by Haas team principal Guenther Steiner following Romain Grosjean's disqualification from the Italian Grand Prix.

Grosjean's floor was found to be illegal after Renault launched a protest against the team. Grosjean was stripped of his sixth place finish, but Steiner said following the FIA's decision that Renault had broken a "gentleman's agreement" to address questions of legality on an informal basis.

But Green stated: "No, they broke the regulations. “It was a technical directive from the FIA telling everybody these are the regulations and you need to abide by them by Monza. Plenty of time.

“That’s a completely different scenario from thinking someone’s illegal and then doing a sneaky on them at the end of the race. Which tends not to happen, we tend to talk to the FIA and the FIA will talk to the team and sort it out. But when you get a directive from the FIA you follow it otherwise you end up being excluded. That’s what’s happened. That’s not a gentleman’s agreement, that’s what the regulations are there for.”

Force India did not consider protesting against Haas, despite both cars finishing behind Grosjean at Monza. Haas has appealed the disqualification, but a verdict is not due until the beginning of November.