Yahoo Autos Haas F1 Drops Long-Time Boss Guenther Steiner
Guenther Steiner, the team principal of the Haas Formula 1 team since its founding, has been dropped by the organization. He will be replaced in the role by Haas director of engineering Ayao Komatsu.
The decision, announced Wednesday, marks the end of a decade at Haas for Steiner, who helped bring the team onto the grid and led it through all eight of its Formula 1 seasons. In that time, Haas has never scored a win or a podium finish. It was a notably long runway for Steiner to make Haas into a winner, but the team's patience has run out and his era is over.
Haas made a brief charge up the grid in its first three seasons, plateauing with a strong fifth-place finish in 2018. A decline followed immediately and the team has not finished better than eighth in the championship since. In 2020, the program scored just three points. In a particularly disastrous 2021, it failed to secure a single point.
Prior to his time with Haas, Steiner had made a name for himself leading world rally teams. That led him to Jaguar F1, then Red Bull F1, and finally Red Bull's NASCAR program before he ultimately ended up back in Formula 1 with Haas.
Steiner has also risen to prominence as a celebrity in his own right through F1's Netflix reality series, Drive to Survive. That led to a book released in 2023, aptly named Surviving to Drive. Last season also saw Steiner spend a race in the NASCAR on Fox booth and share his Chipotle order with the nation as part of a sponsor promotion. On track, his Haas F1 team scored four points-paying finishes over 22 two-car grand prix entries.
The news comes just hours after word that technical director Simone Resta had also left the program. By removing its top competition and technical leaders, Haas is cleaning the slate and finally adjusting its plan to move up the F1 grid. The team has just a month and a half to finish transitioning its leadership team before Formula 1 begins annual pre-season testing in Bahrain.
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