Guenther Steiner names one big regret about time at Haas
"Every day was the same, we were just doing a job.”
Guenther Steiner insists he should have left Haas much earlier than he eventually did.
The former team principal left his job at the end of last year, but believes the writing was on the wall 18 months earlier.
Steiner was instrumental in setting up the Haas F1 team from the ground up.
“I have no bad feelings against the team,” he told the Sky F1 podcast.
“You understand, when you are gone. When you are in it, you have tunnel vision - ‘I need to do this’.
“You never think about why the hell am I doing this, it doesn’t make sense.
“When you look back…
“I should have left in the middle of 2022. It started afterwards to get difficult.
“I couldn’t see how we could make progress.
“We were going to races and were so happy to [score] one point. But how long can you do that? You can do it a long time, but not me.
“I need to have something bigger to aim at than getting one point. Because I’ve done that, I’ve got the t-shirt.
“When you set up an F1 team you want to establish it, then get points, then go the podium. You need a goal.
“When Covid hit, everything stalled. Every day was the same, we were just doing a job.”
Haas started 2022 with the inexperienced driver duo of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.
Mazepin was swiftly sacked, opening the door to Kevin Magnussen.
Magnussen finished 13th in the drivers’ championship, Schumacher 16th. Haas were seventh in the constructors’.
But the team went backwards in 2023, which would eventually be Steiner’s final season as the team boss.
Haas finished bottom of the constructors’ championship despite Steiner’s decision to get rid of inexperienced drivers and count on Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg.
Under Ayao Komatsu’s leadership this season, there appears to be brighter days ahead for Haas.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
