Haas Formula 1 chief Guenther Steiner believes the team’s links to Ferrari would not be quest🅺ioned if it was not competitive, but has learned to live with the criticism.

Haas has enjoyed a close technical partnership with Ferrari since entering F1 in 2016, and finished fifth in last🤪 year’s constructors’ championship.

The Haas model has been praised by some for taking a▨dvantage of F1’s rulebook that permits a certain level of purchased parts. But the team has also faced criticism from rivals who claim that it i💙s simply a B-team to the Italian marque.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, Haas chief Steiner hit ba൲ck at the critics, saying it is clear the team is doing nothing wro♏ng.

“I don’t really care. Some of the people that say that, I don’t really know what tಞhey mean by it,” Steiner said.

“I think they don’t know what🅷 they mean with it. It’s normally the people that cannot 💃understand why we’re doing such a good job. They just say we’re copying Ferrari.

“There are clearly written rules – what you can and can’t do – and we do everything to the rulebook. I don’t really care if they have a bad o♚pinion about us.”

Haas said the close relationship between Ferrari and Haas has onl🅰y faced scrutiny because of the team’s on-track success, fighting regularly against bigger operations such as Renault and McLaren.

“Nobody would care🔜 if we were at the bottom. Everybody would be happy,” Steiner said.

“That’s what everyone 🦹was expecting. That’s where they thought we would be when we got into Formula 1. It’s developed over the years with people getting more critical. It goes hand-in-hand with our classifications.

“After a while, you get used to it🍃. You live with it and don’t care.♌”