Gene Haas: The departure of Guenther Steiner and the “shame” he felt with his team

So far back in time, that sensational fifth place in the 2018 World Constructors' Championship, with Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen As pilots. Since then, Haas has been unable to move away from the bottom of the table. An eighth-place finish in 2022 was his best since a distant top-five finish and was his last in two of the last three seasons: 2021 and 2023. Gene Haas, owner of the American team, ran out of patience and decided to dismiss journalist Guenther Steiner from his position as manager and replace him with Ayo Komatsu. Who has served as Engineering Director since 2016.

In statements to the Formula 1 website, Haas explained the reasons for the step taken by the team leadership. “It was about performance. Here we are in our eighth year, over 160 races, we have never been able to get on the podium. The last two years we were 10th or 9th.”. “I'm not sitting here and saying it's Gunter's fault or anything like that, but it seems like this is the right time to make a change and try a different direction, because it doesn't seem like continuing with what we had is going to work,” the American businessman said.

Haas has a technical alliance with Ferrari, the structure that supplies engines and other components. On this particular point, Gene Haas is relying on his request to achieve better results in Formula 1. “Ferrari have been very good to us. They have been with us since day one, and they have built amazing engines. Its suspension is very good. We use many of its components. It works very well.” Very good. They are really helping us. I'm ashamed that we couldn't do better.But in the future, I want to benefit from a good team that not many other teams have.”

Haas said, already thinking about the future:Things will be more competitive. Red Bull has AlphaTauri, and we're starting to see these relationships developI think the competition will be very intense, so having a partner like Ferrari will be very important. I talk to a lot of engineers, and I think our biggest flaw is aerodynamics; Our aerodynamic program needs work.