Guenther Steiner admits he stayed too long as Haas’ team principal in Formula 1.
Steiner was heavily involved in Haas’ initial entry into Formula 1 and was its team principal from the start of its journey in 2016. Haas’ fortunes in recent years were lean and the squad slumped to the bottom of the F1 Constructors’ Championship in 2023.
Haas and Steiner parted company in early January, with former engineering chief Ayao Komatsu promoted to take Steiner’s role.
“Life has been good since I left Haas ahead of this season,” Steiner said in a column on Formula 1’s official website.
“These last few weeks are the first time I’ve switched off from F1 for around a decade. This time has been good for me. The longer time goes on, the more I can see that I stayed at Haas too long.
“When you step away, you get clarity—and you can see what you need to do. While you’re there, you’re in denial, you think you can do it but you cannot.
“When I was there, with what we had, you could still fight for being seventh, eighth or ninth—but you couldn’t fight for podiums without the same weapons as the other guys. Doing that in the long-term is not what I want to do in life. I don’t want to be seventh again. I’ve done that. I want to be able to fight, to battle at the front.
“I would come back to F1 in the future, but it needs to be the right project, done right.”
Steiner has remained affiliated with Formula 1 as a freelance commentator at select Grands Prix. He is due to attend next weekend’s round in Australia with an Australian local network.
U.K.-based Phillip Horton started covering Grands Prix while still at university and swiftly deemed that writing about Formula 1 and the behind-the-scenes machinations was much more engaging than reading centuries-old novels. Degree gained, he went on to cover the sport full-time from 2014 and is as intrigued and excited by the destinations Formula 1 visits during its lengthy annual world tour as the racing itself. Phillip joined Autoweek in 2021 and while he has just about learned to spell in American English he has yet to find anywhere in America that makes a proper cup of tea.
