By Joe Murphy
Guenther Steiner has shockingly left his role as Team Principal of Haas F1 Team effective immediately in a move that is sure to make ‘Drive to Survive’ far less entertaining. However, the plan is for current Director of Engineering; Ayao Komatsu, to take the role.
Guenther led the team since the American squad entered F1 back in 2016. The Italian was F1’s third longest-serving team principal, behind Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Mercedes’ Toto Wolff, and had become something of a cult hero to many.
In his time the team achieved their first and only Pole Position (Brazil 2022) and a 5th place finish in the Constructors Championship standings. Like a roller coaster, there has also been a series of downs. Most notably the Nikita Mazepin farce and, more importantly, finishing last place again in 2023.
In short, Haas struggled to transform one-lap pace in qualifying into points-scoring race pace on Sunday.
After discussions finalised on Wednesday between Steiner and owner Gene Haas, it was decided that Steiner would leave the organisation with immediate effect. The decision is said to be very much from above, with results simply not good enough on the track, as of late. His replacement has already been named too.
Komatsu has also worked with Haas since they debuted, starting as Chief Race Engineer and rising more recently to Director of Engineering.
Owner Gene Haas said in a statement: “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.”
Quite how this decision will impact Haas in the long term, only time will tell. The sport has definitely lost a powerful and entertaining figure though and the grid won’t quite be as fun in 2024, as a result.
WHEEL2WHEEL REPORTS 