Following a catastrophic 2023 season, which saw Haas finish bottom of the constructors’ table, the team’s American owner Gene Haas ran out of patience with the lack of progress and decided not to renew Steiner’s contract.
In his stead, Haas promoted former trackside engineering director Ayao Komatsu to the role as team principal, with Steiner returning to the paddock in the season opener in Bahrain as a TV pundit.
“Life has been good since I left Haas ahead of this season,” he wrote.
“These last few weeks are the first time I’ve switched off from F1 for around a decade. This time has been good for me.
“The longer time goes on, the more I can see that I stayed at Haas too long.
“When you step away, you get clarity – and you can see what you need to do. While you’re there, you’re in denial, you think you can do it but you cannot.”
Steiner explained the grind to fight for minor points position, without being in contention for podiums, was starting to drain his enthusiasm.
Günther Steiner
Photo by: Andreas Beil
“With what we had, you could still fight for being seventh, eighth or ninth – but you couldn’t fight for podiums without the same weapons as the other guys,” he added.
“Doing that in the long-term is not what I want to do in life. I don’t want to be seventh again. I’ve done that. I want to be able to fight, to battle at the front.
“It’s the same thing with Red Bull. How long did it take for them to get there? Every year, they kept on getting better. You need that patience and long-term planning.”
Steiner didn’t rule out returning to an active role in the future if the circumstances are right, stating: “I would come back to F1 in the future, but it needs to be the right project, done right.”
