Former Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner says he was “stung” by not having the opportunity to say a formal goodbye to the team he helped set up and managed for eight years.
In a shake-up of the F1 team’s management, team owner Gene Haas opted not to extend Steiner’s contract with the US outfit as the two men were at odds over their vision of the US outfit’s future.
While Steiner believed that the team required investment to improve their performance, Haas preferred to maintain the current level of spending and focus on efficiency.
Haas has subsequently entrusted the role of team boss to trackside engineering director Ayao Komatsu.
Addressing on Saturday morning the audience at the Autosport International 2024 held in Birmingham, Steiner revealed that Haas informed him of his removal between Christmas and New Year.
Sadly, he was not given an opportunity to bid farewell to Haas’ personnel.
“Can I start with just something off for my side?” Steiner told Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft on the exhibit’s main stage.
“I didn't have the chance to say thank you to a few people when I left Haas F1. I would just like to thank all the team members who I couldn't give a proper goodbye to when I left.
“So I’ll do it this way. And I want to say also to all the fans who supported us while I was there, it’s fantastic - thank you to everybody for the support I got and I am getting, so I'm mega appreciative.
“Yeah, it stung [not to be able to say goodbye] but they all know me and they all know that I appreciate what they did. It's always best to say it to them, it would be nice to say, ‘hey guys, thanks for what you did for the team.’”
©Haas
Steiner admitted that Haas’ decision came as a surprise to him although he acknowledged that it was the team owner’s prerogative to make such a call.
The Italian steered clear of speculating on how Haas would fare under Komatsu’s leadership, but said that F1 had changed a lot since Haas' arrival in 2016, suggesting that it's current model may have perhaps become obsolete.
“Since we have had this model, Formula 1 has changed a lot,” he acknowledged.
“We saw during COVID how much bigger it grew. How much different it got with the budget cap, how we used the budget cap.
“If you look at all the other teams, they were all gearing up. They are not gearing up now. They started to gear up, some three years ago, some years ago, some last year.
“I don’t know Gene Haas’s plans for the future. He didn’t share them with me. He doesn’t have to, by the way.
“I’m actually not really interested in it anymore.”
©Haas
As for his own future, Steiner was evasive but said that he wasn't in a hurry one way of the other to chose his next endeavor.
“If Formula One wants me, I don't know!” he added.
In our situation, I, I'm not in a hurry, you know. There are always people who will see me around in Formula 1; I’ve met a lot of people and made a lot of friends.
“If there's something interesting and which challenges me, yes, but just looking for a job just to stay in F1, maybe that’s not what I want.”
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