Guenther Steiner ‘hasn’t had opportunity to say goodbyes’ to Haas F1 team
The 58-year-old Italian’s departure was confirmed by Haas on Wednesday, bringing to an end a 10-year spell leading the U🌳S-based team.
It is understood that Steiner ꧒was not offered an exten⛎sion after his contract expired at the end of a disappointing 2023 season.
Sky F1’s Slater has revealed that Steinꦍer has not yet been given the opportunity to say goodbye to his forme꧙r colleagues.
“I le🧔arned about this at the weekend, but some people I’ve spoken to say they’ve known about it for a couple of weeks now,” Slater told the Sky F1 pꦿodcast.
“And when I did check in with the Haas team today, with people I speak to there, they’ve t𝔍old me that Guenther🌳 Steiner found out about this towards the end of December.
“He hasn’t had an opportunit♓y to go and say his g💃oodbyes at the factory. He is still in the UK at the moment and that’s interesting as well.
“But as far as I can glean, a surprise to him that he would not be getting his contract reꦚnewed. And that’s why I suppose we have to be careful about our wording here.
“We can’t say he’s been𒉰 sacked, because𓂃 his contract had come to an end and Gene has decided not to renew that.”
Slater continu🥃ed: “People have been telling me, from sources inside the factory, that there’ll be a lot of disappointment that Gu♕enther has gone.
“And then there was a little bit of a coterie picking up on what Crofty said there, that were maybe feeding the 🔯line that why is Guenther releasing a book and getting involved in a US comedy series and doing all this Netflix stuff, when the team are flatlining and flatlining at the bottom as well?”
Slater also qu♔estioned whether Steiner’s replacement, Ayao Komatsu, will fare much better given the limited resources at his disposal.
“It’s a big call,” Slater said. “And if they’re not going to provide extra finance to rebuild the factory and all that, how is Ayao Kom✃atsu going to do🔯 any better?
“Apparently Gene Haas is saying, ‘This is not a signal I’m ꦍabout to sell the team. I’m in it for the long haul, don’t even want big new investors.’”
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for mahbx.com around the world. Often reportܫing on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stor🍎ies of the people who matter in the sport.
