Guenther Steiner’s shock departure from Haas lit up the early weeks of Formula 1’s 2024 campaign, with the Italian making his first public appearance at last weekend’s Autosport International Show.
After an on-stage Q&A – and impromptu book signing – with Sky Sports F1 TV commentator David Croft in front of a bumper crowd at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, Steiner gave his first media interviews since leaving the squad he formed on behalf of team owner Gene Haas back in 2014.
Before an on-camera chat with Sky Sports News reporter Craig Slater, Motorsport.com exclusively sat down with Steiner to hear his side of the story.
In his first in-depth and extended interview, the 58-year-old outlined his thoughts on leaving Haas without being able to say an in-person goodbye to any team staff, why he’s not bitter about the situation and his thoughts on his F1 future.
But he also opened up on certain events that occurred at the team throughout his 10-year stint. These, Steiner believes, should be viewed in a different light, as should the poor results that Gene Haas cited as the main reason for not re-signing his founding team principal.
Steiner “chilled” after Haas exit, but wary of restrictions in place over the situation
Having revealed during his on-stage Q&A that Gene Haas had delivered the news that his 2023-ending contract would not be extended in an “out of the blue” phone call in the between Christmas and New Year period just gone, Steiner told Motorsport.com of his reaction.
“In the end,” he said, “the contract was up and for me, it’s like it always was: ‘If it doesn’t work, just let me know’. I’m not hung on anything. Gene Haas owns the team and obviously has got the right to decide what he wants to do. Simple as this. If he doesn’t want me around, I’m not [around]. That’s alright, let’s move on. I’m not running and in a rush for the next job – I’m chilled.”
While not on gardening leave following his Haas exit, given his contract was not renewed rather than terminated, Steiner is thought currently to be under an anti-competition signing arrangement, which can temporarily be put in place. This differs to the non-working situations F1 team staff can be placed in when they’ve agreed to sign for another team before leaving their current squad.
This is why when asked if in a hypothetical situation where Christian Horner was to offer him a return to Red Bull this week and could he therefore accept such an offer, Steiner replied: “No.” The anti-competing clause has not been confirmed by either side.
2023’s final months sealed Steiner’s fate at Haas
Given the surprise announcement that Steiner won’t be returning with Haas, as the team’s former director of engineering and before that chief race engineer, Ayao Komatsu, takes his place as team principal, the timeline of events that led to Gene Haas’s Christmas phone call is important.
Haas’s 2023 campaign was a disaster, with its VF-23 car overheating its tyres and leaving drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen generally unable to defend high grid positions they secured – mainly with Hulkenberg. That qualifying prowess was thanks to the tyre situation providing a boost over one lap.
The team became the last to switch to Red Bull’s downwash sidepod concept with a massive development package unleashed at its second of three home races last year – the United States Grand Prix at Austin.
But when it became clear in subsequent rounds that the changes had made little to no difference in Haas’s performance level, the final two months of the 2023 season and its last rounds now take on a new context.
Steiner’s position had appeared secure through the Austin and Mexico rounds, but when the team’s 10th place finish and $20 million prize money hit was secured in the Abu Dhabi finale, that result was given by Gene Haas as his catalyst for making the top management change.
“I think because the performance went down, obviously nobody is happy,” Steiner said of the final part of the 2023 campaign. “There is nobody more unhappy than me. But we were faced with a situation that we couldn’t recover this year [2023] and the aim was to do something for racing for 2024.
“I wouldn’t say it [his relationship with Gene Haas in this period] went downhill. It was just like, we tried to work hard – that you do your best – but you know obviously the performance wasn’t good enough and then change needed to be made. That was [what] Gene Haas thought about it.
Asked if the failed upgrade had indeed been what had pushed Gene Haas into his decision, Steiner replied, “I don’t know, you need to ask him that” before adding, “I think it was very clear that if you do something – a concept change as quick as we did – that to make a big leap is very difficult, especially because you’ve got underlying design features that you cannot change any more at this late stage”.
He continued: “But I think for the technical guys it was a good way to go in that direction, to learn for 2024.”