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 US-based team. 

It is understood that Steiner was not offered an extension after his contract expired at the end of a disappointing 2023 season.

Sky F1’s Slater has revealed that Steiner has not yet been given the opportunity to say goodbye to his former colleagues. 

“I learned 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 podcast.

“And when I did check in with the Haas team today, with people I speak to there, they’ve told me that Guenther Steiner found out about this towards the end of December.

“He hasn’t had an opportunity to go and say his goodbyes 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 renewed. And that’s why I suppose we have to be careful about our wording here.

“We can’t say he’s been sacked, because his contract had come to an end and Gene has decided not to renew that.”

Slater continued: “People have been telling me, from sources inside the factory, that there’ll be a lot of disappointment that Guenther 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 questioned 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 Komatsu going to do any better?

“Apparently Gene Haas is saying, ‘This is not a signal I’m about to sell the team. I’m in it for the long haul, don’t even want big new investors.’”