"I was in Italy on my Christmas break": Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner shares when the team informed him about his exit
Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner recently shared that he was informed of his exit from the American team during the Christmas break.
The Italian-American had been Haas' team principal since they entered F1 in 2016. The team announced earlier this week that he would be let go of his responsibilities after they finished last in the Constructors Championship in the 2023 season.
The decision caught everyone by surprise as there were no comments from Steiner in the team's press release. Speaking to Craig Slater of Sky Sports, the former Haas boss revealed that he was informed about his exit before the turn of the year. He said:
"It was a phone call from Gene Haas to me. I was in Italy on my Christmas break and he called me up between Christmas and New Year."
He claimed that the decision caught him by surprise but his contract was up at the end of 2023, adding:
"Obviously nobody was happy with the results in 2023 but I didn't see this coming. I knew that the renewal of my contract was coming up and then when a renewal is coming up it can be that it's not getting renewed."
Guenther Steiner takes a dig at Gene Haas over his 'celebrity' status
The former team boss was among some of the most popular people in the paddock given his star-making turn in the Netflix series Drive to Survive.
When asked if his 'celebrity' status in the paddock might have been one of the reasons behind his departure and souring relations with Gene Haas, Guenther Steiner admitted:
"Not really, but thinking back now, it could have. But in the end that celebrity gave the team a lot of exposure, and brought in very good sponsors like MoneyGram because they liked that because they could use that [profile].
"There are always positives and negatives to any deal so maybe there were some positives and somebody brought up the negatives. These are things you cannot always plan for because I was not out there trying to look for a celebrity. It happened to me and only the people who know me know that, so I'm ok with that."
Gene Haas had earlier mentioned that the exit of Steiner was purely down to performance and external factors had no part to play in it.