Gene Haas: "I’m not sitting here saying it’s Steiner's fault"

The Steiner era has come to an abrupt end at Haas F1: the Italian had to leave on Wednesday after team owner Gene Haas harshly judged the performance of Haas F1 and Guenther Steiner.

The press release received by the international media on Wednesday contained beautifully worded phrases, which no doubt came from an extensive PR department. In an interview that team owner Gene Haas had with Formula 1's official website, the American was much more outspoken. The ultimate reason Steiner had to leave? "It came down to performance," Haas stated.

The wealthy American pumps tens of millions of private money into the team every year and does want success in return. In reality, Haas F1 finished last in the constructors' championship in 2023. "Here we are in our eighth year, over 160 races – we have never had a podium. The last couple of years, we’ve been 10th or ninth," Gene Haas said.

The American continued. "I’m not sitting here saying it’s Guenther’s fault, or anything like that, but it just seems like this was an appropriate time to make a change and try a different direction, because it doesn’t seem like continuing with what we had is really going to work.”

Haas stressed that he was fond of Steiner and that interpersonal relations were not the problem. But the last year was one that Gene Haas could not get his head around. In particular, he called the end of the season "tough" and said he did not know what went wrong. "At the end of the day, it’s about performance. I have no interest in being 10th anymore.”