The unexpected news that Guenther Steiner has been relieved of his Team Principal duties by Gene Haas was more than merited – but the eponymous Formula 1 squad’s ongoing problems run much deeper than displacing a single individual.
Steiner had been intertwined with the American outfit since its inception in 2014, co-operating with Gene Haas to eventually yield the team an entry onto the 2016 grid before then running the day-to-day business of the operation in his post as team boss.
But while Steiner’s stock had risen and his popularity soared during the intervening years through the portrayal of his eccentric character in the Netflix Drive to Survive series, the on-track performance of Haas in recent times failed to scale those heights.
Except for rare moments of respite, Haas has been on a downward trend ever since the team peaked with a fifth-place finish in only its third-ever season of competition in 2018.
Having managed to keep the team afloat throughout the trials and tribulations of the Covid-19 pandemic with various sponsorship agreements, Steiner took the brave decision to sacrifice the side’s competitiveness under the last season of the previous regulations.
That proved to be an inspired choice as the allocation of resources towards the current generation of cars for 2022 witnessed Haas immediately return to an improved standing.
When Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made the position of Nikita Mazepin, a rookie driver who had been out of his depth, untenable, Steiner was the driving force behind the choice to re-hire Kevin Magnussen, who utilised the pace of the VF-22 to score a remarkable fifth on his comeback outing.
Although results tailed away and Haas dropped to eighth in the Constructors’ Championship, Steiner had steadied the ship and provided the team with a direction again.
With a new title sponsor in the form of MoneyGram enabling it to compete at the limit of the cost cap for the first time, the prospects for Haas had never looked greater.
However, the hope of a brighter future for the Kannapolis-based camp dissipated as the last campaign progressed as it became clear it was falling rapidly behind the competition.
While Magnussen and new team-mate Nico Hulkenberg were capable of extracting results from the VF-23 in qualifying, the presence of an all-too-familiar problem with tyre degradation hampered Haas in races.
Coupled with being laboured with an aero concept that had hit a development ceiling, Haas only logged a solitary point in a grand prix across the last 17 races of the season.
Even the eagerly-anticipated addition of a radically upgraded car in Austin that converted it to the downwash sidepod solution failed to galvanize an instant upturn.
Hulkenberg issued perhaps the biggest indictment of Haas’ troubles when he elected to revert to the older spec to complete the final two rounds in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi. He would later admit that he held the view that it produced “more downforce in high-speed corners” and was “the better car”.
Ultimately, results hadn’t been good enough and a reoccurrence of previous woes with no solution in sight presented the optimum moment for Haas to part ways with Steiner.
But rather than search externally for a replacement, Gene Haas has opted to place faith in Ayao Komatsu, most recently the squad’s Trackside Engineering Director.
The positives to guaranteeing stability is maintained in the ranks are obvious, but promoting an individual who was part of the old regime does warrant some questioning.
Like Steiner, Komatsu had also been in place since the team’s inauguration and had progressed to effectively become his predecessor’s right-hand man in later years.
Therefore, it’s worth pondering what Komatsu could bring to the table in his updated role that he wouldn’t have been able to implement under his previous occupation.
Gene Haas stressed the “need to improve our on-track performances”, citing that Komatsu ensures Haas has “engineering at the heart of our management” moving on.
With all due respect to his credentials, Komatsu’s appointment could be viewed as a safeguard choice that protects the direction Haas wants the team to be run in.
Since entering F1, Haas has capitalised on a technical alliance with Ferrari to source the maximum amount of non-listed parts permitted within the realms of the rulebook.
Furthermore, the American outfit has even adopted an office in the Italian marque’s Maranello base, which prompted concerns from rival sides at the height of Haas’ form.
But while that template proved effective in preventing Haas from disappearing altogether within a few seasons like the hopeless trio accepted for 2010, the landscape in F1 has changed dramatically.
Even accounting for the introduction of the budget cap in 2021 to limit the spending of the top teams, Haas would benefit from serious investment from the owner’s pockets to bolster its technical ranks and upgrade the infrastructure across its bases in Banbury, England, Kannapolis, US and Maranello, Italy.
That will become even more essential with the direction the series is heading in. Once the Sauber-owned operation evolves into a works Audi entry from 2026, only Haas and Williams will remain as independent entities.
After being rooted to the bottom of the championship in four of the previous five seasons, Williams rose to seventh place under the stewardship of James Vowles, whose experience as part of a title-winning enterprise at Mercedes led to him successfully lobbying the team’s owners for enhancements to its Grove headquarters.
But while Williams has benefitted from hiring an individual from the outside with a fresh perspective, Haas has resigned itself to recycling the same tried and tested ideas.
The notable absence of any comments from Steiner in the press release was significant and suggests that the nature of his departure from Haas did not materialise amicably.
It is rumoured that the Italian had proposed an overhaul to the team’s model approaching the critical 2026 rules reset that Gene Haas had been against administering right now.
The extent to which Haas is dependent on Ferrari could be seen in Steiner’s comments at the turn of the year regarding his hopes for Charles Leclerc to become World Champion.
“I hope it is Charles who succeeds Max [Verstappen] as champion, because that would mean that they have a good package and at the same time, we will have a good one,” Steiner told Sky F1 late last season.
From the outside, it seems clear that the potential for Haas as an F1 team in the modern era will consistently be capped if it continues to rely too extensively on Ferrari.
The challenge awaiting Komatsu in his debut season at the helm will be monumental and he embarks upon a baptism of fire in trying to reverse Haas’ recent performance trend.
But the Japanese engineer, formerly of BAR and Lotus-Renault, has over 20 years of experience within the sport and has garnered a glowing reputation inside the F1 paddock.
However, while the choice to not retain Steiner’s services can be vindicated, his removal has still exposed complications that will continue to plague Haas in his absence.
