Steiner confesses he stayed at Haas too long

Steiner was Haas’ foundation team principal, leading the organisation since 2016, having been instrumental in setting up the team in the first place.

During that time, the team recorded a best constructors’ championship result of fifth in 2018 courtesy of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen.

Since then, it’s only finished above ninth in the championship once, in 2022. Last year, it was 10th and last.

“Life has been good since I left Haas ahead of this season,” Steiner wrote in his column for F1’s official website.

“These last few weeks are the first time I’ve switched off from F1 for around a decade. This time has been good for me.

“The longer time goes on, the more I can see that I stayed at Haas too long.

“When you step away, you get clarity – and you can see what you need to do.

“While you’re there, you’re in denial, you think you can do it but you cannot.”

Haas operates a unique model with a close relationship with Ferrari.

That sees the team buy in what components it can under the technical regulations and develop the rest in-house.

It has a design office within Ferrari’s factory in Maranello and employs Dallara for some aspects.

The race team itself is based in the United Kingdom, in a facility once occupied by the Manor F1 team, while its headquarters is officially in Kannapolis, in the United States.

It’s a complicated structure that has limitations.

“When I was there, with what we had, you could still fight for being seventh, eighth or ninth – but you couldn’t fight for podiums without the same weapons as the other guys,” Steiner admitted.

“Doing that in the long-term is not what I want to do in life. I don’t want to be seventh again. I’ve done that. I want to be able to fight, to battle at the front.

“When Toto Wolff started with Mercedes, the team at the time was not at the top,” he added.

“Yes, they had the advantage of the engine at the beginning, but he set everything up right to be successful in the mid-term – and they won eight constructors’ championships.

“It’s the same thing with Red Bull. How long did it take for them to get there? Every year, they kept on getting better.

“You need that patience and long-term planning.”

Steiner is currently in Australia, featuring prominently at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival this weekend.

Yesterday, he experienced a ride in a Ford Mustang Supercar courtesy of James Courtney.

“So far, very good,” he told Speedcafe of his first day at the event.

“It’s a lot of things going on here and just to try to take everything in is already a lot.

“The people, you can see that they love to come here; they enjoy every car they see, and obviously being in motorsport as long as I am, it’s nice to see this,” he added.

“There’s fans out there that really enjoy what they are doing and what they get to see and what they can enjoy.”

Steiner will again appear at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival today ahead of venturing to Melbourne, where he will form part of the Channel 10 broadcast team at the Australian Grand Prix next weekend.