F1 | Gene Haas points the finger at Steiner

“We needed a change”, these are the words of the owner of Haas, Gene Haas, after the news communicated yesterday dismissal of Guenther Steiner from the role of team principal. In recent years the American team has always been at the rear of the starting grid and now, Haas has admitted that in light of the new season that is upon us (there will be tests in Bahrain from 21st to 23rd February), it was necessary to make of changes. The American says he doesn't want to point the finger at Steiner but interviewed by Lawrence Barretto, he certainly didn't tell the South Tyrolean, guilty to say he didn't understand how to revive the team from disastrous years.

“It's a performance-driven decision. In eight years, with more than 160 races held, we have never managed to obtain a podium. I'm not saying that Guenther is to blame but a change was needed, to try a different path. I don't think it would have worked if we had continued to work the same way.
Guenther is truly a nice person with a nice character. We had a difficult end to the championship and I don't know why. These are questions that should be asked to Guenther to understand what went wrong. It's about performance, I don't want to finish tenth anymore."

Haas is therefore betting everything on the new team principal, Ayao Komatsu for redemption this season:

“Guenther had a more human approach to things, he was very good at interacting with people. Ayao is very technical, he observes things based on data. It's a different type of approach that we need because we haven't done well so far. We will see if a more engineering and managerial approach will bring advantages."