Guenther Steiner’s foray into F1 was rather complex with his varied experience in management and the technical aspects of motorsport. He first worked for Ford’s Jaguar Racing from 2001 to 2003 as their managing director. However, as the team faltered due to several technical and top-management issues, Steiner relinquished his responsibilities. But those experiences added to his learnings as a manager.
Appearing on the ‘Road to Success’ podcast, the former Haas boss gave insights into his learnings of management. The host asked Steiner whether he had a background in business and management, owing to his family’s history. On this, the 59-year-old revealed that his parents had their own business — a butcher shop.
He stated how his parents built it up from nothing and that taught him some crucial aspects about life in general. Steiner said, “I think I grew up in the way that I understood hard work is needed to achieve something.”
About his managerial capability, the American-Italian mentioned that he understood management was about “dealing with people”. He said, “Managing is telling people what to do but how you tell it, that is the key to it. And how you approach it, how you let them do it.”
Steiner added that he never attended business school to learn how to manage people effectively. It was his real-life and on-the-job experiences that shaped him as a strong and dynamic team principal in F1.
Nevertheless, after serving as the team principal and leading the Haas F1 team for a decade, Steiner had to leave the team as the team’s owner Gene Haas was not happy with his leadership and the team’s consistent failures.
Steiner’s Haas exit
Gene Haas had been quite stern about expecting results from his team in F1 and held Steiner responsible for its progress. However, with consistent finishes in the bottom three of the championship, Gene felt he had been patient enough with Steiner.
BREAKING: Guenther Steiner to leave Haas F1 Team effective immediately
Ayao Komatsu will replace Steiner as Team Principal #F1 @HaasF1Team pic.twitter.com/9kx1ho4H28
— Formula 1 (@F1) January 10, 2024
Thus, at the start of 2024, the American businessman sacked Steiner to replace him with Ayao Komatsu. Steiner was naturally a bit sad at leaving the team he had led for so long. However, he recently also highlighted how he felt relieved after his exit as all the pressure on his shoulders vanished away.
While Haas has been doing much better since Steiner left, the 59-year-old has maintained the stance that Gene never invested enough money into the F1 operation to provide the team with enough resources to make progress.
Now, Steiner makes appearances in the F1 paddock as a part of the media and makes regular appearances in talk shows and podcasts all over the F1 community.
