Guenther Steiner’s departure from Haas is of course a loss for Formula One, but it is a huge blow to the team he is leaving behind and one which raises questions about the long-term ambitions of its owner, Gene Haas.
Wednesday’s surprise announcement means the American team, for the first time since its debut in 2016, will go into a new season not under Steiner’s popular stewardship. With Haas struggling to show any tangible progress in 2023, the departure of one of F1’s most tenured team principals for a rookie team boss, Ayao Komatsu, represents a massive gamble by Gene Haas at what seems to be a critical moment in the team’s existence.
On the surface, it is easy just to view Steiner as the funny, potty-mouthed man with an accent that’s slightly hard to place — it often surprises people to learn he is Italian, hailing from the northern Tyrol region, not German or Austrian. Steiner has been one of the cult characters and standout stars from Netflix documentary Drive to Survive, showcased his confrontations with drivers such as Kevin Magnussen and Nikita Mazepin.
Steiner’s interactions with the latter, especially, were one of the standout points of the most recent DTS season – after a terse exchange between Mazepin and his engineer in one episode, Steiner is caught saying “F— him. That’s why people f—— hate you”. It was just one example from a list of his standout quotes from the show. Steiner parlayed his huge popularity into a book, released last year, titled Surviving to Drive. His personality and openness to just about any question posed to him will be missed in the paddock this year.
But the comedic image Steiner cultivated for himself does a disservice to the job he has done at Haas and how valuable he has been. Steiner was the man Gene Haas turned to when first looking at the logistics for a potential F1 team in 2014 and 2015. With previous experience from Jaguar and Red Bull Steiner had experience with start-up F1 teams, while Haas, by his own admission, was an outsider with his racing knowledge mainly limited to NASCAR. It has been said behind the scenes that the Haas team as we know it today would not exist without the Italian and that seems like a fair assessment — while Gene Haas’ name has been on the equipment, Steiner has very much been the face of the outfit since 2016 and has overseen most aspects of the day-to-day operation since.
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at www.espn.com – RPM…