F1 News: Guenther Steiner Speaks Out After Surprise Exit From Formula 1

"I don’t know if Formula 1 wants me!”

For the first time since his surprise exit from Formula 1 on January 10, former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has spoken out. He revealed details about his sudden departure from the team, where he dedicated a decade of his services. His departure marked the second exit within a few hours, following technical director Simone Resta's earlier departure from the team. The owner of the American outfit, Gene Haas, introduced Ayao Komatsu, the trackside engineering director, as the new team principal.

The sudden exit of Steiner left the F1 fraternity in shock, with many eager to know the reason for such a drastic change in the team. Gene Haas revealed that he didn't want the team to remain at the bottom of the Constructors' Standings, as was the case in 2023. This might have contributed to Steiner's ousting.

Yet, in his first appearance at the Autosport International show in Birmingham today since his unexpected departure from Formula 1, Steiner disclosed that Gene Haas informed him over a phone call at the end of December that his contract would not be renewed. He said:

"It was a phone call, he [Gene] called me and said that he does not want to extend the contract which was up at the end of the season and that was it."

He added that wasn't interested in Haas anymore:

“Since we have had this model, Formula 1 has changed a lot.

“We saw during COVID how much bigger it grew. How much different it got with the budget cap, how we used the budget cap.

“If you look at all the other teams, they were all gearing up. They are not gearing up now. They started to gear up, some three years ago, some years ago, some last year.

“I don’t know Gene Haas’ plans for the future. He didn’t share them with me, he doesn’t have to, by the way.

“I’m actually not really interested in it anymore.”

Steiner's Future Plans

Speaking about his plans ahead, Steiner says he would prefer to be involved in a project that had a future than do a job for the sake of it. He added:

“I don’t know if Formula 1 wants me! [he jokingly said]

“Now at the moment, I’m very chilled out about the situation.

“I’m not unhappy and I know a lot of people, I’ve got a lot of friends and for me just hanging around for a year doing the obb job, that does it for me. If something interesting comes along, which challenges me, yes, but just staying in Formula 1 just to do a job, maybe is not what I want to do.

“I like to be with people but it needs to be something where I can see a future in it. I don’t just want to go there and then move on to the next thing. I want to do something where you can achieve something and you try to get somewhere and then I will do it.

“But as I said, at the moment, I just want to chill out. It was 10 tough years behind me. I’m still good. I’ve got plenty of stuff to do.”