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After a decade in charge of the American team, Steiner has revealed that owner Gene Haas called him in between Christmas and the New Year to inform him his contract would not be renewed.
Haas has opted for a more engineering-focused future, dropping Steiner in favour of Ayao Komatsu, who has been promoted from his former role as director of engineering.
Following the conversation with Haas, speaking at Autosport International in Birmingham, England, Steiner has revealed that he “didn’t have the chance to say thank you to a few people when I left”.
On stage, Steiner then took the opportunity to express his gratitude, adding: “I would just like to thank all the team members who I couldn’t give a proper goodbye to when I left.
“I also want to say thank you to all the fans who supported us while I was there. Fantastic! I really appreciate it.”
Steiner then conceded that “it stung to not say bye”, adding: “But they all know me and know that I still appreciate what they did.
“It’s always best to say it to them vocally but it would be nice to say ‘Hey guys, thanks for all you did for the team’.
“It was a team that was very small and ran on adrenaline a lot of times. They did a good job and I want to say thank you to them. It doesn’t make you happy not saying thank you.”
As to whether Haas’ decision to part ways came as a surprise, he said: “It’s always a surprise but then in the end he owns the team. He can do what he wants, it’s his decision.”
After 10 years at the sharp end of F1, it now appears as if Steiner will take a breather from the sport, conceding that he wants “to chill out a little bit”.
He added: “It was 10 tough years, and I’ve got plenty of stuff to do. There is plenty to clean up at home.
“It is also good to stay with the family. My daughter is 14 years old, and she is quite demanding.
“Trying to manage that seems to be more difficult than running an F1 team, so I’ll be doing this for a few months.”
