“The fish always stinks at the head”: Former F1 driver not surprised by Guenther Steiner's dismissal from Haas
Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher is not surprised by Haas team principal Guenther Steiner's exit from the team. Steiner had been the figurehead of Haas for a decade and had led the American team in F1 for eight years. His highest point was guiding Haas to a P5 finish in the championship in 2018.
However, that high could not be sustained and that team has been on a downward spiral for the last few years. Haas has finished at the bottom of the standings in two of the last three seasons and has been under pressure to perform well. During this time, Steiner also came in for criticism from a few quarters, including pundits. about how he handled young Mick Schumacher at Haas.
Mick's uncle Ralf Schumacher was one of the pundits at the forefront of it and did not seem surprised that Steiner was booted out of Haas. Blaming the team's struggles on Guenter, he told F1Insider:
“The fish always stinks at the head.”
Gene Haas, the team owner had also explained in an interview with F1.com that the team finishing last in the championship was just not what sat right with him.
“Here 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,” he stated.
Former Haas team principal on his Drive to Survive fame costing him his role
In a conversation with Sky Sports F1, Guenther Steiner was questioned if he felt that his fame from Drive to Survive worked against him at Haas.
The former team principal admitted that although he never looked for fame as it happened automatically, looking back, it may have played a role.
"No not really. But thinking back now, it could have but in the end the celebrity gave the team a lot of exposure, a lot of exposure. It brought in very good sponsors like Moneygram because they liked it, because they could use that," Steiner explained.
"There is always positives and negatives to anything. 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 celebrity. It happened to me and only the people who know me know that, so I'm ok with that," he added.
Steiner has said that he won't be coming back to F1 for some time but it remains to be seen if the sport will see him again in some capacity soon.