F1 | Steiner's admission: “I stayed too long at Haas”

After eight years as team principal of the American team, the team owner, Gene Haas, has decided not to renew Guenther Steiner's contract. The main reason is the lack of results, especially in recent seasons which have been very difficult and complicated. The South Tyrolean, as you well remember, had fired Mick Schumacher, preferring Nico Hulkenberg to work alongside Kevin Magnussen but the situation has not changed at all: Haas has always remained at the bottom. Now Steiner, replaced by Ayao Komatsu, has taken on the role of commentator for the German broadcaster RTL and participated in the opening Grand Prix in Bahrain. Interviewed by Formula1.com, the South Tyrolean admitted that he would return to Formula 1 only for a valid project.

“Since I left Haas, my life has been going smoothly. It's been a decade since I took a break from Formula 1 and these weeks off have been positive for me. The more time passes, the more I realize I've stayed at Haas too long. When you step away, you gain clarity and can see what you need to do. While you're there, you think you can do it but you can't. When I was there, with what we had, you could still fight to be seventh, eighth or ninth, but you couldn't fight for the podium without the same weapons as the other guys. Doing this long term is not what I want to do in life. I don't want to be seventh again, I want to be able to fight. When Toto Wolff started with Mercedes, the team was not at the top at the time. Yes, they had the engine advantage at the start, but he set everything up to be successful in the medium term and they won eight constructors' championships. Red Bull did the same thing: how long did it take them to get there? Every year, they just kept getting better. You need patience and long-term planning. I would return to F1 in the future, but with the right project, done well."