Haas F1 team owner addresses speculation of the team being up for sale
Haas F1 team owner Gene Haas claims that he has no intention of selling the American team after the departure of former team principal Guenther Steiner.
Haas announced on Wednesday (January 10) that Steiner would leave the American team after being the team principal since its inception in 2016. He is replaced by Ayao Komatsu, who was the trackside engineering director under his leadership.
Since Steiner's exit, there have been several reports and rumors that Gene Haas might look to sell the team as they are struggling at the back of the field. Speaking with F1.com, Gene Haas said:
“I didn’t get into F1 to sell [the team]. I did it because I wanted to race. Guenther had the same perspective. We’re not here to cash out, we want to race and be competitive. If you look at any team, historically, they have had a lot of good years and a lot of bad years."
“Surviving is one of the characteristics of getting better. As long as you can survive, you always have another year to prove your worthiness. This is a big change. Losing Guenther is going to cause the team to have to focus on other aspects. We will hopefully come out better for it.”
Gene Haas reveals the reason behind Guenther Steiner's exit
The American owner stated that Steiner's exit from the team was purely based on the team's performance in recent years.
The team had finished P8 and P10 in the past two years and the owner pointed out that he was tired of finishing at the bottom end of the grid. He said:
“It came down to performance. We are in our eighth year, over 160 races – we have never had a podium. The last couple of years, we’ve been 10th or ninth."
"I’m not sitting here saying it’s Guenther’s fault, or anything like that, but it just seems like this was an appropriate time to make a change and try a different direction because it doesn’t seem like continuing with what we had is really going to work.”
Steiner did not have any statements about his departure in the team's press release and it is reported that he did not even get the opportunity to speak with the team.
It will be interesting to see if the team can make forward progress in the 2024 season and weather the storm under the leadership of Komatsu.