Revealed: The reasons for Guenther Steiner and Haas’ “disagreement” and split

The team chose not to extend it, BBC and Sky report, meaning he was not technically fired.

But the split was due to underlying disputes.

“The Italian and the team had different visions on the future,” Sky reported.

Those differences were reported elsewhere too.

“I understand Steiner and owner Gene Haas had differing views on the team’s path forward and thus it was decided to go their separate ways,” F1.com’s Lawrence Barretto wrote.

“I believe Steiner’s contract expired at the end of last year. Following the disagreement on the future strategy, that contract wasn’t renewed.”

Ayao Komatsu will replace the popular Steiner, who grew in fame due to Netflix series Drive To Survive, as Haas team principal for the 2024 F1 season.

Gene Haas hinted at the reasons for this split in his official statement: "Moving forward, it was clear we needed to improve our on-track performances.”

Tellingly, the Haas statement announcing Steiner’s exit did not include a comment from the man himself.

Haas finished bottom of the F1 constructors’ championship last season, the eighth of Steiner’s leadership.

They have often been dogged by their race pace after respectable qualifying stints.

Their cost-effective approach has been to only build their own chassis and aerodynamics surfaces, and import the rest of their parts from Ferrari.

A year ago, Steiner made the high-profile call to axe driver Mick Schumacher after what he deemed to be too many crashes.

But even with the experienced duo of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg this year, Haas failed to move up the grid.

Ultimately, Steiner has paid the price.