Former Haas team principal and F1 fan favourite Guenther Steiner has opened up on his shock exit from the team.
Steiner was the driving force behind the team’s entrance into the sport in 2016 and remained the American constructor’s team principal until the eve of this season, when it was announced that Haas had opted not to renew Steiner’s contract.
Now the Italian, who shot to cult-hero status due to his expletive-laden performances on Netflix’s Drive to Survive, has revealed he has ‘no regrets’ over his time at Haas – except for being unable to farewell the team staff in person after his shock axing only six weeks before pre-season testing.
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Steiner is back at the Australian Grand Prix this weekend as a pundit for German television.
He told Fox Sports’ Jess Yates: “It’s completely different circumstances. When you’re running a team you focus just on that, you don’t get to see a lot outside.
“This time, I’ve got to see a lot outside (the Grand Prix) … I’m pretty happy with that.”
Speaking about the reasons behind his Haas axit, Steiner revealed: “Gene Haas, the owner of Haas F1, his vision didn’t match what I wanted to do – or I didn’t match what he wanted to do, obviously since he owns the team and not me, and I’m fully respectful of that.
“It was getting too hard to do, for where I wanted to get. Because when you’re in a competitive environment you always want to go up – just to be there, to be around (the best). And you need to make investments to get there because all the other teams (are).
“I didn’t invent anything new, I just looked around and the other teams are doing completely different things. And we didn’t keep up with them – and if you don’t keep up, you don’t get there.
“You work as hard as them but you don’t get there.”
“It just didn’t work anymore,” he added. “It’s one of those things in life.
“I was with the team ten years. I started it from nothing, I came up with the idea so I’m pretty happy.”
Did his surprise dumping for the team’s engineering boss Ayao Komatsu sting?
Steiner said: “Not really, because all good things come to an end. In life, I always think like this.
“I was a little bit disappointed I couldn’t say goodbye to the people directly when I was there. How it was done could have been a lot better.
“Otherwise, it’s just one of those things in life. If you’re not in a position to do what you want to do or what you like to do, it’s fine, you need to move on.
One door closes, two open.”
As for his legacy at the team, which ended a three-decade absence for American constructors in F1, he looks back fondly despite the team finishing dead last in the 2023 constructor’s championship.
Steiner said: “I think it’s pretty good, it’s still the youngest team in Formula 1.
“If I think back 10, 12, 14 years (ago) when I started to go around with a business plan to try to find an investor to set up an F1 team, a lot of people said ‘this will never work’.
“We made it happen. And I say specifically ‘we’ made it happen: there was a whole team involved in it, not only me. I had the idea, but there was a lot of good people and a lot of these people are still at the team.
“I look back positively, no regrets.”
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Steiner’s popularity on the back of Drive to Survive saw him release a book about his time in the sport last year – fittingly titled “Surviving to Drive: A year inside Formula 1”.
It’s no surprise then that the former Haas mastermind has been flooded with job offers since his exit was revealed in January.
“I’m busier than I wanted to be busy, to be honest,” he laughs.
“That maybe sounds strange now, but the day after it was announced the telephone (calls) and the WhatsApps started coming in: ‘Oh, do you want to come do this one or that one?’
“I said ‘I’m not saying no to anything or yes to anything, I just don’t know what I want to do.’
“I’m now almost 59 and I still don’t know what I want to do when I’m a grown-up!”
As for the possibility of returning to the grid as a team principal or in a similar position with another team, Steiner won’t close the door – though he has some caveats.
“The circumstances need to be right,” he says.
“I don’t have to do it, fortunately.
“So if I’m going to do it – and there is no short term plan at the moment to do anything – but if I’m going to do it, I wouldn’t say it needs to be on my terms, but it needs to be on terms that I’m very happy with.
“Just going in there to do a job, I don’t want to do (that). I always, what I did in my life, it was always what I enjoyed to do.
“Because if I don’t enjoy it, I don’t do a good job. If I don’t enjoy it, I’m my biggest enemy because I don’t want to do it.
“So at the moment, not (any plans to return). But if something comes up – I’m always talking with people, I’m always in contact with people – maybe.
“But no pressure.”
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