Why Steiner was likely fired from Haas

Gene Haas has made the decision: Guenther Steiner is out of hisFormula 1 team and must look for a new employer. At least, that'sthe general assumption after Haas communicated Steiner's departure.Between the lines, one could read that they were not satisfied withthe performance - but there are several factors at play. TheItalian had been the team's boss since its birth in 2014, butdespite a hopeful start, success has been lacking in recent years.Haas entered the sport in 2016 after working behind the scenes forsome time to build the team. Steiner, the former technical directorof Jaguar and Red Bull, began Haas' F1 adventure energetically asteam boss. Haas had its home base in North Carolina in the UnitedStates, but also bought a factory in England from the defunctMarussia team. Haas opted for a technical partnership with Ferrari,purchasing as many parts as allowed by the regulations, Dallara wasbrought in to help with the chassis and as little as possible wasdone in-house. Ups and downs Romain Grosjean got off to a flyingstart in 2016, grabbing an immediate sixth in Haas' first race,followed by a fifth in Bahrain. After that, three more points werescored: good enough for eighth place in the Constructors'Championship. Over the years, things got better and better,culminating in a fifth-place finish in 2018, although a lot ofnoise was made about that year's car as it was said to be verysimilar to the Ferrari challenger from one year prior. Results soonslumped, with ninth-place finishes occurring in 2019 and 2020. Dueto the Covid-19 crisis, 2021 was a survival year for Haas whodidn't have a penny to spare and didn't upgrade its car during theseason. Last place was therefore the maximum possible, as everyexpense was put into the new car for 2022. Two years ago that erabegan. It was reminiscent of 2016, as Kevin Magnussen scored afifth place in Bahrain. After that, however, developments were fewas there was only money for one upgrade. A backer, MoneyGram,arrived in late 2022, which would provide a brighter outlook forthe future of the Kannapolis team. But the revival did notmaterialise. Despite a solid start to 2023, Steiner's team failedto develop the car further and a disappointing 10th place in thechampionship was the result. It even produced a substantial upgradewith a changed concept in the closing stages, to no avail. Steinersacrificed As team boss, Steiner is of course the team's chiefexecutive and owner Gene Haas has therefore decided to show theItalian the door. Poor performance will obviously have played asignificant role in this. Steiner could always hide behind the factthat Haas was a small team with a small wallet. Still Haas'facilities are less than those of many competitors, but there wasno shortage of money last year. Throughout the year, Steiner andhis team seemed to be in the dark about the cause of the problemswith the Haas VF-23, especially in terms of tyre wear, and a majorupdate at the end of the season produced lacklustre results. It isclear from the press release that Steiner is the focus of theblame. “We need to be efficient with the resources we have butimproving our design and engineering capability is key to oursuccess as a team,” said Gene Haas. “I’m looking forward to workingwith Ayao [Komatsu, Steiner's replacement] and fundamentallyensuring that we maximize our potential – this truly reflects mydesire to compete properly in Formula 1.” While at the beginning ofthe Haas adventure Steiner still managed to provide an upwardtrajectory, the team has not been pointing in the same direction oflate. There's been a period of stagnation in recent years, evenafter the financial injection of the new title sponsor. Gene Haas'choice is understandable in that regard. Fighting behind thescenes? Behind the scenes, things have also reportedly beenrumbling within Haas F1 for some time. Owner Gene Haas and Steinerare said to be having discussions about the team. The F1 businessmagazine BusinessF1 - that magazine that also wrote the story aboutthe alleged dissatisfaction with Toto and Susie Wolff - wrote inAugust about an internal feud. Steiner allegedly believes he has aclaim to 50 per cent of the Haas team, having been involved fromday one and eventually finding Gene Haas as a backer. The two wouldhave met on such an agreement many years back. Due to the value ofthe F1 team having increased dramatically in recent years, the dealwould now be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. According toreports, Steiner is said to have considered taking legal action.Although going to court after Steiner's dismissal is not yet offthe table, of course, it may also have played into the decision tobe rid of Steiner. It should be noted that there are no officialreports about the alleged feud, and the Italian former team bosshas always said he had a healthy relationship with Gene Haas. Thefact that there was no room in the Haas press release for quotesfrom Steiner also seems to say enough. Steiner likely did not leavevoluntarily. Cult hero Steiner In recent years, Steiner has becomea cult hero off the track. Where normally the drivers are the bigheroes, at Haas it is safe to say that Steiner was the bigcrowd-pleaser. For example, he was a prominent and quotable figurein the Netflix series Drive to Survive. It didn't hurt his ownpersonal reach as he decided to write his own book, Surviving toDrive, which no doubt earned him a nice penny. Of course,contractually it will all have been permissible, but if you usethat star status for your own gain, tangible competitive resultsmust be achieved. It's certainly easy to imagine that Gene Haas,himself a man who rarely appears on the F1 stage and operatesmostly in the shadows, was not happy about all the attentionSteiner demanded for himself, without any good results in return.Conclusion All in all, it seems inevitable that Steiner would beseen as primarily responsible for the F1 team's poor results. Thelack of progression during last season can be pinned on him,especially now that there is money to spend again. Haas F1 seemsadrift and the current generation of F1 cars still holds too manysecrets for the team after two seasons. In the meantime, thingsreportedly no longer quite clicked between him and the big boss,the man who gave the team its raison d'être. Thus, after 10 yearsfull of ups and downs, Steiner's period at Haas came to an end.Fans will likely miss Guenther, but mostly for his statements, notnecessarily for what he did for the team. At the same time, GeneHaas will have to take a hard look at itself. Is the concept behindHaas buying as much as possible from third-party suppliers andbuilding his own car around it still viable today? If not, perhapshe should make a call to the Andretti family. They probably havesome interest in forming an F1 squad.