F1 News: Red Bull Advisor Blames Netflix For Guenther Steiner Exit - "A Victim Of His Popularity"

Helmut Marko blamed Netflix's Drive To Survive For Guenther Steiner's exit.

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has revealed the real reason behind former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner's ousting. Blaming his role in Netflix's Drive to Series docuseries that made him an F1 star, the senior advisor claimed that his popularity pushed him to "Fly Too High Too Fast", something that team owner Gene Haas disliked. 

Haas entered the Formula 1 grid in 2016, and ever since, Steiner has been associated with the team. However, last week, the American outfit disclosed his departure in advance of the extensive 24-race 2024 season.

He has been replaced by Haas's Director of Engineering Ayao Komatsu. Stating the reason for his exit, Marko highlighted the Netflix angle and stated that Steiner "became a victim of his popularity". He told F1-Insider:

"Let's put it this way: anyone who becomes too popular through a documentary like Netflix tends to take off.

“But if you fly too high too fast, you also crash faster. I've only heard that he wanted to convert his popularity into shares in the team.

“That no longer appealed to owner Gene Haas. It is also the case in our sport that the team always takes precedence over the individual. Steiner became a victim of his popularity."

Speaking on Steiner's exit, here's what Gene Haas had to say to F1's website:

"It came down to performance. 

"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."