Guenther Steiner admits one major Haas regret - and considers F1 future

Guenther Steiner believes that he stayed at Haas for too long.

The popular team principal surprisingly left his job before the start of the F1 2024 season.

He cited disagreements over money and investment with team owner Gene Haas for the reason that his expiring contract was not renewed.

Steiner has now made an admission about his near-decade with the US-owned F1 team.

“Life has been good since I left Haas ahead of this season,” he wrote for F1.com.

“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.

“When Toto Wolff started with Mercedes, the team at the time was not at the top.

“Yes, they had the advantage of the engine at the beginning, but he set everything up right to be successful in the mid-term – and they won eight constructors’ championships.

“It’s the same thing with Red Bull. How long did it take for them to get there?

“Every year, they kept on getting better. You need that patience and long-term planning.

“I would come back to F1 in the future, but it needs to be the right project, done right.”

Steiner was replaced as Haas team principal by Ayao Komatsu, a move which brings his engineering expertise to the forefront of the team.

Driver Kevin Magnussen said about the change of boss: “I don't want to compare to Guenther all the time, because that is in the past.

"We're just looking ahead and I think the atmosphere in the team is very healthy at the moment, the engineers are super-motivated.

"I feel in the garage, there's a fresh outlook, a fresh start in a way and that has given everyone a bit of hope and a bit of a boost, feeling like this is a new opportunity."

Haas finished bottom of the F1 constructors’ championship twice in the past three years.

Steiner has insisted that he requested investment from Gene Haas which ultimately spelled the end of his tenure.