Steiner admits he stayed at Haas two years too long and was relieved to be sacked

Guenther Steiner has admitted he overstayed his welcome at Haas by two years and was ultimately relieved when owner Gene Haas ended his tenure as team principal in a brief phone call at the end of the 2023 season.

Speaking on the High Performance podcast, Steiner — who built the American outfit from scratch ahead of its 2016 Formula 1 debut — said he should have walked away once it became clear the team’s ownership would not commit to the infrastructure investments he believed were essential.

“I think I stayed two years too long,” Steiner said. “What I should have done better or differently was to explain my vision better so they would do it, but I don’t know if I would ever have achieved that. What I should have done was just say, ‘Hey, it’s not working. I’m leaving now.’”

Despite that reflection, Steiner stopped short of expressing regret. “With hindsight, that’s what I say, but at the time it wasn’t this bad because otherwise I would have done it,” he added.

The manner of his exit — a phone call he took while standing at a supermarket deli counter — has since become one of the more memorable departure stories in recent F1 history. Steiner recalled telling his wife on the spot: “I’m not with Haas anymore,” to her visible confusion. “We went home and had dinner and I slept perfectly and I was even happier the next morning when I got up because a new world opened and I just wanted to move on in life.”

Far from bitter about the way the decision was made for him, Steiner said the clarity was welcome. “Sometimes you want to make a decision, but then you don’t. When it came to it, I was very happy when it happened because I didn’t agree with where the team was going. My vision was different than the owner’s.”

Since leaving Haas, Steiner has moved into television punditry and taken ownership of the MotoGP and Moto3 team KTM Tech3, marking a significant expansion of his role in motorsport beyond Formula 1.