“He Is an Idiot” – Guenther Steiner Admits Mistake of Not Hiring an American Driver

Haas F1 team made its debut in Formula 1 in the 2016 season becoming the only American team on the grid. Ever since the team’s debut in the sport, Haas has struggled to climb to the top of the grid, and team principal Guenther Steiner has now admitted the biggest mistake the team made.

Formula 1 began to gain momentum from the new market of fans – America – after the sport was taken over by liberty media in 2018. While the acquisition came to fruition in 2018, the talks about the takeover had been undergoing from before that.

But the American team failed to recognize the potential market of America. As per a report by Business F1(Dec 2021), Steiner admitted his colossal mistake of underestimating the US market and not hiring an American driver six years ago.

We don’t think Günther will be losing sleep over this one 💤#Steiner #Haas #F1 #Formula1 pic.twitter.com/Knd0fJjdQw

— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) April 18, 2023

Guenther Steiner doesn’t think Haas did a bad job

Liberty Media’s acquisition of the Formula 1 group brought the sport a whole new fanbase. Netflix’s docu-series Drive to Survive added more to this with its success among young fans. However, all of this took place in and after the 2018 season.

Before that, there were only talks about expanding the sport in the US. But still, the team could have judged the potential of the American market when they entered the sport. “I think we neglected that a little bit in the beginning when we came in,” said Steiner in the aftermath of the USGP last year.

“In the beginning when we started it was a lot smaller and now it seems to have taken off. Why didn’t we see that coming? I didn’t have a crystal ball telling me. Now we need to put more emphasis on it to attract sponsors, to get more involved with people from America,” he further added.

While Steiner admits that the team made a mistake, he doesn’t think that Haas did a bad job. He believes that the market wasn’t there and now there is a market and a big demand for F1 so hopefully, they will make the right choice going ahead.

What mistakes did Haas make?

Business F1 report stated that Haas completely ignored its roots and heritage. They did not feature American branding on the car neither did the team grab the opportunity to hire an American driver.

The team chose to opt for European drivers who failed to help the team grow and eventually left the sport. Furthermore, the team boss also failed to sign even a single American sponsor.

Instead, they signed a title partnership with ‘Rich Energy’ for the 2019 season. Rich Energy later collapsed halfway through the year and paid no money for the sponsorship.

A former team principal who is quite critical of Steiner said, “This man[Steiner] has squandered a huge opportunity. He is an idiot.”