"Brave thing for him to do in a country where it's illegal to be homosexual" - F1 pundit on what ex-Haas leader Guenther Steiner wrote in his book
Renowned F1 journalist Matt Bishop recently shared a paragraph from ex-Haas team principal Guenther Steiner's book 'Surviving to Drive,' showing his support of the LGBTQ+ community.
Steiner was recently removed from the American team and was replaced by Ayao Komatsu. As a farewell, Bishop shared a heartwarming paragraph from Steiner's book.
In his post on X, Bishop put up a picture of a paragraph from Steiner's book, where the former Haas team principal talked about going to countries like Hungary, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia that are gradually becoming more open about homosexuality.
"Sure, we are not responsible for that improvement, but I'd sooner be with the people of Hungary, Qatar and Saudi Arabia as they slowly move away from these kinds of prejudices than just stand on the sidelines and disapprove of them," it read.
Furthermore, Steiner wrote about Bishop and his views on homosexuality while being a homosexual individual himself. Steiner concluded that he and everyone in the F1 community should stand with Bishop and everyone in the LGBTQ+ community.
"A friend of mine is the former F1 journalist and PR chief Matt Bishop. He is a gay man, and he is of the opinion that it is better to go to these places and be part of the change than to boycott them. It's a brave thing for him to do, you know. Especially in a country where it is illegal to be a homosexual. It is the right thing to do, though, and I, and I'm sure everyone in Formula 1, stands with Matt and the LGBTQ+ community," Steiner wrote.
Bishop praised the ex-Haas team senior for being aware of the community and supporting it in his book.
Guenther Steiner dropped from the Haas team principal's position
Massive news broke a few hours ago about Guenther Steiner being removed from the Haas F1 team. Steiner was the team's head from 2014 to 2023, but the team has been struggling in recent times.
Steiner has now been replaced by Ayao Kamatsu.
Speaking about the move, team owner Gene Haas was said via the team's press release:
“I’d like to start by extending my thanks to Guenther Steiner for all his hard work over the past decade and I wish him well for the future. Moving forward as an organization it was clear we need to improve our on-track performances. In appointing Ayao Komatsu as Team Principal we fundamentally have engineering at the heart of our management.”
Haas ended the 2023 F1 season dead last with only 12 points in the constructors' championship.