In the last three seasons, Haas has finished last in the constructors championship twice. The team scored no points throughout 2021, while they could only manage to secure 12 points this season. Standing at the helm of a blunt attack from Haas, Guenther Steiner believes defeating Max Verstappen in a race has become an unrealistic dream and that they need to remain realistic in their approach.
Speaking in an interview further quoted by F1 Maximaal, the Italian engineer talked about how his team needs to focus on regaining control of the midfield before they can challenge the top teams.
“Our goal is not to beat Max [Verstappen]. That would be unrealistic, and it is better to remain realistic. It is more of a general question whether it is good for the sport that someone dominates so much.”
Reflecting on his team’s performance, Steiner said that they started the season on a high note, and it gave the team false hope. However, five months into the season, they realized their car was no good, and it would be a “sh*t” season for them, but it was too late for them to do anything about it.
Meanwhile, Max Verstappen dominated the entire grid, winning 19 races out of 22. Steiner also addressed the Dutchman’s dominion and did not like the fact that other teams were calling the three-time world champion out for his incredible year. While others blame Verstappen for making the sport boring, Steiner claims they should work on trying to one-up the 26-year-old instead of confronting him for his wins.
Guenther Steiner asks other teams to improve to defeat Max Verstappen
Per the 58-year-old, a few teams in F1 have a similar infrastructure to Red Bull and should use the same to develop a car that can defeat the Dutchman. He added that these teams have the same number of personnel working on their cars as Red Bull but fail to capitalize on it the way the Austrian team does. Per Steiner, Verstappen and Red Bull are not invincible, and their dominance is not indefinite. However, from the fans’ perspective, the Red Bull dominance of 2023 made the races a tad boring, calling for significant improvements in 2024.
Both Ferrari and McLaren enjoyed a mid-season resurgence that helped their teams climb up the ladder and stand as potential threats to Red Bull for the next season. However, their challenge in 2023 was still inadequate, and they have a long way to go before posing a serious threat to the current constructors’ champions. Standing as the only team apart from Red Bull to win a race in 2023, Ferrari has the best chance to kill Red Bull’s dominion, and they need to take the feat as their motivation heading into the 2024 season.
