F1 News: Haas Team Owner Clarifies Stance After Reports Of Andretti Cadillac Takeover - “A Big Change"

Gene Haas has had a lot to say after Guenther Steiner's exit.

Haas has been making news for a couple of days over the winter break after the exit of the team principal, Guenther Steiner. However, the episode raised several important questions, one being if team founder Gene Haas intends to sell the team to a potential player like Andretti-Cadillac, who is eager to join the F1 grid. 

While the other Formula 1 teams focus on upping the pace of their 2024 cars, Haas has been sailing through a storm after witnessing the end of an era under a popular team boss. Not only that, a few hours before his exit, it was rumoured that Haas technical director Simone Resta stepped down as well. 

To fill the gap, trackside engineering director Ayao Komatsu has been announced as the new team principal at Haas. However, the Steiner exit episode has brought the team under fire from fans and personalities such as Sky F1 commentator David Croft, who questioned the team's 10th-place finish in the Constructors' Championship last year and praised the former Italian-American boss for his leadership qualities. 

Haas Press Image

Gene was also questioned if the current events in the team were pointing to an Andretti-Cadillac takeover of the Haas team. However, revealing to the Formula 1 website, the team owner made his stance clear and offered the logic that in the history of any team in F1, it goes through good years and bad years. But what's more important is to survive until the storm has passed. He said:

“I didn’t get into F1 to sell [the team].

“I did it because I wanted to race. Guenther had the same perspective.

“We’re not here to cash out, we want to race and be competitive. If you look at any team, historically, they have had a lot of good years and a lot of bad years.

“Surviving is one of the characteristics of getting better. As long as you can survive, you always have another year to prove your worthiness. This is a big change. Losing Guenther is going to cause the team to have to focus on other aspects. We will hopefully come out better for it.”