Chicken/egg. Steiner: I quit! Haas: You can't quit, you're fired! Do we know who left first, Resta or Steiner. Was the latter, in part, due to the former?
Resta is a good engineer. He had bad relationships with Binotto and would be a good asset inside the Scuderia again. Time will tell.
Gene Haas must have had a fit, and ended up sacking the 2 main guys just as the season is about to start. They may have decided to leave for the same reason: lack of resources. I don't expect much of 2024 at Haas now !
I would still prefer Haas than Andretti !! Andretti would be another big budget production. I like Haas discreet low-cost effort: it's like David against the Goliaths of F1.
Between 2014 and 2023, Ferrari had 4 team principals: Marco Mattiaci, Maurizio Arrivabene, Mattia Binotto and Frederic Vasseur. During that time, Haas had just one: Guenther Steiner. Which team is more unstable ?
I can't help it, but I find Gene Haas more "simpatico" than Micheal Andretti at this point. BTW, Haas was 5th in the WCC in 2018.
The perception is that he has not hit budget allowed maximum even under the current cap. Steiner was adamant Gene spend more. We see the results of that LOL.
Haas F1 always ran on a shoestring budget. One season, Steiner claimed he had only a $90M budget, when the budget cap was $140M ! The results have to be seen in that light. The sponsorship deals with Rich Energy and Uralkali were complete flops. Some years, Gene Haas was forced to fund the team himself to finish the season. Even now, I'm not sure the Moneygram sponsorship is enough for Haas F1 to break even. That could be the crunch between him and Steiner, and also Resta that led to the divorce.
Let GM buy Haas, then they can bring Andretti in as both partner and runner of the team. And Haas saves face and maybe gets closer to his price.
Drive to Survive is finished’ – F1 fans react to wild Guenther Steiner departure at Haas https://www.planetf1.com/news/netflix-series-finished-f1-fans-guenther-steiner-haas-departure
I suppose Steiner's departure was inevitable, after the feud he had with Gene Haas over team ownership.
No and no and no. Not without money lol! Can F1’s latest engineer team boss pull off a McLaren-style turnaround for Haas? Formula 1’s trend for team bosses to come from engineering ranks means it is not too big a surprise that the experienced Ayao Komatsu will replace Guenther Steiner at Haas.
Gene doesn't want to spend any more money. He's putting the bare minimum in to keep the team going and that's it. No mas. IMO Gene gives off the vibe that he saw what they did in the first 2 seasons with a small budget and he believes it's Steiners fault the same results aren't replicated with the same (or less) money. He should just sell.
Team is too valuable and Andretti is lacking the 900mil for Haas + the 800 mil he will have to pay to join potentially. 1.7Bill$ to buy and race lol. That is just a bit absurd and does he or his 'backers' have that on hand and want to fund that number?. I can see a 'Saudi-backed' consortium approaching Haas lol. They want to get a hold in F1 - not a bad team to tempt to sell?????
1.7b is sheer lunacy. The teams all high and mighty now due to insane valuations but it's not going to last long. DTS viewers already going away as predicted. New engine regs are just making it worse. WDC is criticizing them at every new thing they implement. He's not the only one that'll voice his opinion now that others are seeing that being a mouthpiece isn't exactly what people want.
Hello Gene - this is all your fault LOL. You have had years and now its an embarrasment???? You need a new PR team as well. https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/gene-haas-embarrassed-by-his-teams-poor-f1-form/10564682/ Gene Haas “embarrassed” by his team’s poor F1 form Gene Haas says he’s “embarrassed” that his Formula 1 team has not been more competitive given its close relationship with supplier Ferrari. AUTHORAdam Cooper PUBLISHEDJAN 11, 2024, 11:35 AM The American has also opened up on his reasons for not renewing the contract of team principal Guenther Steiner, and for promoting Ayao Komatsu to the role rather than taking on an outsider. The team announced the shock changes on Wednesday, while also confirming that technical director Simone Resta had left. Ferrari supplies the team with not just a power unit and gearbox but also suspension and other mechanical items that the FIA regulations allow teams to share. However, while the works outfit had a car that logged pole positions and won the only race of 2023 that didn’t fall to Red Bull, Haas tumbled to the bottom of the pecking order. “Ferrari has been very good to us,” Haas told the Formula 1 website. “They have been with us since day one, they build incredible engines. Their suspension is extremely good. We have been using a lot of their hardware. “It works really well. They really do help us. I’m embarrassed that we haven’t been able to do better with it, but going forward, I want to take advantage of good equipment that a lot of other teams don’t have. “Things are going to get a lot more competitive. Red Bull have AlphaTauri, we’re starting to see these relationships evolve, and I think the competition is going to be very intense, so having a partner like Ferrari is going to be very important.” He added: “I talk to a lot of the engineers, and I think our biggest failing is aero; our aero programme needs work. When you’re at the track and you’re humiliated every weekend, I’m going to stop taking that one anymore.” Expanding on the departure of Steiner, he insisted that changes were needed in an attempt to raise the team’s level. “It came down to performance,” he said. “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. “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. “I like Guenther, he’s a really nice person, a really good personality. We had a tough end to the year. I don’t understand that, I really don’t. Those are good questions to ask Guenther, what went wrong. At the end of the day, it’s about performance. I have no interest in being 10th anymore.” Haas is convinced that Komatsu has the right skill set to turn the team around. “We looked from within, at who had most experience,” says Haas. “Ayao has been with the team since day one, he knows the ins and outs of it. “My biggest concern is when we go to Bahrain, we need to show up with a car that is ready to go. Maybe having more of a managerial-type and engineering approach, we’ll see if that has benefits. “I think Guenther had more of a human-type approach to everything with people and the way he interacted with people, he was very good at that. “Ayao is very technical, he looks at things based on statistics – this is what we’re doing bad, where can we do better. It’s a different approach. “We really do need something different because we weren’t really doing that well. Like I said, it all comes down to eight years in, dead last. Nothing more I can say on that.” Asked why he didn’t look outside, given that former team bosses such as Mattia Binotto and Otmar Szafnauer are currently on the sidelines, Haas insisted that he preferred to promote from within. “I’ve been running Haas Automation for over 40 years now,” he said. “Bringing people in from the outside, it takes them time to learn, six months to a year, and a lot of time you don’t even like them. “It’s better to take people you know, and even if they are not the perfect fit, at least you know what you’re going to get.
I hope Haas can redress their form and get better results. I would be disappointed if they just sold and quit F1. Gene Haas claims he doesn't want to do that. Haas outsource most of the car, so it's a matter of making all the "ingredients" work together. 2023 did show failures in producing upgrades, and lacking in aero development. That's why an engineering solution has to be found. Komatsu may be better than Steiner in that role.
The engineer's 'engineered' the solution. Im not sure why Steiner is gone other than the personality conflict over money needed by the team to continue to improve which appears to be lacking.
