Steiner worked with Haas for nearly a decade, making him F1’s third longest-serving team principal
3 hours ago
–> 
–>
Guenther Steiner has been the darling of the F1 paddock ever since Netflix’s Drive to Survive began shedding light on his foul-mouthed, no-nonsense demeanor in an otherwise straight-laced racing series. However, after nearly a decade with the team, the Italian-American has been absolved of his role as Haas F1’s Team Principal.
Steiner has been with Haas since their inception in 2014, and even led the team to a points finish at their debut race in 2016. Since then, the team has seen intermittent success, but not the lasting growth that owner Gene Haas might have originally hoped for, which is likely what led to this decision.
Related: FIA Approves Andretti’s Bid To Enter F1 With Cadillac, But It’s Not Over Yet
advertisement scroll to continue
To replace Steiner for the upcoming season, Haas has appointed Ayao Komatsu as their new team principal. Komatsu has worked with Haas almost as long as Steiner, having started as the team’s Chief Race Engineer back in 2016 before moving up to become their Director of Engineering. He’s also had extensive experience in F1‘s engineering circles prior to Haas, having worked for British American Racing, Renault, and Lotus in a career stretching all the way back to 2003.
Regarding the promotion, Komatsu said: “I’m naturally very excited to have the opportunity to be Team Principal at Haas. Having been with the team since its track-debut back in 2016 I’m obviously passionately invested in its success in Formula 1. I’m looking forward to leading our program and the various competitive operations internally to ensure we can build a structure that produces improved on-track performances.”
See Also: F1 Partners With Off-Road Race Series To Explore Hydrogen Power In Motorsports
It’s been speculated that Steiner’s ousting came from a dispute between himself and Gene Haas regarding the team’s future. Allegedly, Steiner felt that Gene should invest more into the team to overhaul it into a solid midfield contender, but Gene didn’t agree. Being an independent team with no manufacturer backing, it’s hard for a team like Haas to secure as much funding as bigger outfits like Mercedes and Ferrari. It’s a bit of a catch-22 situation, since it’s hard to produce results without money, but it’s also hard to get money without results.
Regardless of the exact reason behind Steiner’s departure, Gene seems to hold no animosity towards him, saying: “I’d like to start by extending my thanks to Guenther Steiner for all his hard work over the past decade and I wish him well for the future.” However, as he continued, he did hint at a team philosophy moving forward in which the current level of spending remains, which would seem to corroborate the leading speculations. “We have had some successes, but we need to be consistent in delivering results that help us reach our wider goals as an organization. We need to be efficient with the resources we have but improving our design and engineering capability is key to our success as a team,” he said.
With any luck, the team will hopefully be able to rebound from their dead-last finish in the 2023 constructors’ championship, but we won’t know for certain until rubber meets asphalt at the start of the 2024 season in March.
