Guenther Steiner opens up on his departure from Haas and also F1 for the moment and his take on Gene’s comments plus future.
Steiner made his first public appearance post the announcement of him not continuing on as the Haas F1 team principal for 2024. He was present at the Autosport International Show, where he revealed the moment he was told about his departure.
Gene called him between Christmas and New Year which was surprising and at the same time not as well for Steiner. The Italian reckoned it was totally on Gene as it is his team and he can do whatever he can, but what irked him was he never got to say goodbye.
Since the F1 team were on holiday, Steiner couldn’t pop in to bid farewell and so he took the chance to thank them and wish them well. Regarding Gene being embarrassed finishing 10th, the Italian had a bit philosophical approach to it.
He also recalled some good moments with Haas that he had, while on his future, he hasn’t thought about it and wants to chill out. He did hint about landing a TV role if at all, while he will also be at some races since he has some good friends in the sport.
Conversation with Gene Haas, no goodbyes –
Steiner: “It was a phone call, he called me and said that he does not want to extend the contract which was up at the end of the season and that was it. I didn’t have the chance to say thank you to a few people when I left Haas. I would just like to thank all the team members, which I couldn’t give a proper goodbye to when I left. I want to say also thank you to all the fans which supported us while I was there, so it’s fantastic. I really appreciate it. It stung to not say bye. But they all know me and know that I still appreciate what they did. It’s always best to say it to them vocally but it would be nice to say ‘hey guys, thanks for all what you did for the team’. It was a team that was very small and ran on adrenaline a lot of times. They did a good job and I want to say thank you to them. It doesn’t make you happy not saying thank you.”
Decision to not continue, results being embarrassing –
Steiner: “It was a bit of a surprise. Gene felt that is the way he wants to take the team forward. It’s his decision, not my one. He owns the place and if you own something, you have got the right to do what you want. If he feels like this [embarrassing], that’s his feeling and he can say it. Obviously, nobody in the team is proud to be 10th. We didn’t have a good season in ’23, we all know that. But in my opinion, when you’re down it’s not how you get down [but] how you get up again. That’s just my life motto and that is what you have to think about: to not be embarrassed about anything, just keep on going and make it better. I would say to the to the team: just keep on working. There’s a lot of good people there. Just keep your head down and keep on digging. You will get there.”
Moments with Haas –
Steiner: “I think there was two moments when we went out testing in 2016 in Barcelona the first time, but when you say, ‘wow, it really happened, we are now on the race track’, and then obviously when we scored points on our first race in Australia, it’s something, because there were so many new teams at the time, and you are one of them where there is a that it would never work, but it’s like, if then you go out there over the speed bar, this can never work out. And then you go out there and score points, that’s pretty cool and that is the moment you remember, but I think over 10 years in the team, there was a lot of good moments, right, finishing fifth in the championship in 2018, I mean, in our first year, that was something, I don’t think many things have come before, so you always remember those days.”
Work in F1, future –
Steiner: “I don’t know if Formula 1 wants me, I don’t know that. I guess I have to find something to do. Now at the moment, I’m very chilled out about the situation. I am not in a hurry, you always see people in F1 around and I know a lot of people, I’ve got a lot of friends and for me just hanging around for a year doing the odd job, that does it for me. If something interesting comes along, which challenges me, yes, but just staying in Formula 1 just to do a job, maybe is now what I want to do. I like to be with people but it needs to be something where I can see a future in it. I don’t just want to go there and then move on to the next thing. I want to do something where you can achieve something and you try to get somewhere and then I will do it. But as I said, at the moment, I just want to chill out. It was 10 tough years behind me. I’m still good. I’ve got plenty of stuff to do – there is plenty to clean up at home. It is also good to stay with the family, my daughter is 14 years old, and so she is quite demanding. Trying to manage that seems to be more difficult than running an F1 team at the moment, so I’ll be doing this for a few months.”
Here’s Gene Haas explaining his decision making
Here’s Haas announcing Ayao Komatsu as new boss
Here’s Nico Hulkenberg on not being overly confident for 2024
Here’s Kevin Magnussen on return to F1
Here’s Kevin Magnussen on old and new specs
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