Former Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner has become a prominent voice in the paddock after his exit from the sport at the end of the 2023 season. That said, when it comes to his own ex-employers, the Italian-American has failed to deliver consistent remarks.
When speaking about the line-up change at the Kannapolis-based team last year, the 59-year-old had put the likes of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon in strong contention to replace the outgoing Nico Hulkenberg on the Red Flags podcast.
However, just months later, Steiner had seemingly changed his stance on Ocon. The #31 driver, who had signed on with Haas for 2025 and beyond, wasn’t a signing that Steiner was particularly pleased with.
BREAKING: Esteban Ocon joins Haas for 2025 on a multi-year deal!#F1 pic.twitter.com/ze4OjjTesE
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 25, 2024
He explained in a chat with Oxford Union, “Esteban Ocon, I know him, I would say he’s a good driver, you know, I don’t think he’s a world champion material. I don’t think I would have taken him; I would have tried to keep Hulkenberg.
Steiner had cited Ocon’s history of not getting along with his teammates as the motivating factor to snub the Frenchman. And like Ocon, Steiner’s remarks about Haas’ other signing — Oliver Bearman — have not been consistent either.
Is Steiner happy with Bearman’s signing?
At the start of 2024, Bearman turned quite a few heads in the paddock with his late-notice debut for Ferrari at the Saudi Arabian GP. The Briton finished P7 for the Scuderia, ahead of the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris.
When quizzed whether this would make the 19-year-old a worthy candidate for a race seat with Haas, Steiner had objected by saying that it was too early to know. Moreover, he felt that Bearman was still just a “50-50” prospect.
Now, however, the American-Italian engineer has claimed that he was quite confident that had he been the boss at Haas, he would have put the Briton in that second race seat come what may. “Based on his performance in Jeddah, after what I saw from him, I’d put him in a race seat,” he said.
