It’s well known that Haas team principal Guenther Steiner was once a Red Bull employee. However, as per Business F1, Christian Horner wanted to eliminate the South Tyrolean. The Briton was unsuccessful and forced to ship Steiner away to the US with a $3,000,000 cheque guaranteed for the next three years.
Steiener was scouted by Niki Lauda in 2002 for Jaguar’s Managing Director role. He was signed on a six-year deal for a $1 Million yearly fee. However, the Italian made several organizational changes within the F1 team.
Jaguar, however, did not fare well and lost the backing of Ford. Lauda was sacked from his role, and Steiner was removed from his position. Once Red Bull took over the team, the new establishment kept him. However, Horner knew the Italian wasn’t the person he was looking for.
Christian Horner wanted to sack Guenther Steiner from the Red Bull role
After Red Bull brought out Jaguar’s team, they invited Guenther Steiner back into the team as their Technical Operations Director. He completed the 2005 season with the team, but Christian Horner wanted to sack him as he did not feel the Tyrolean within the team.
Horner conveyed his wishes to Dietrich Mateschitz, Red Bull’s late founder, and Helmut Marko. However, the two Austrians did not want to terminate an Austrian native’s contract.
🗣️| Horner has said Steiner wasn’t the leader Red Bull needed and he wanted to replace him as early as he could
“Guenther was and is a character but it was obvious he was not a technical leader. I identified what the team really needed was a technical leader and direction.” pic.twitter.com/C5mTQkX7y8
— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) March 25, 2023
As per Business F1’s report, they offered him the choice to relocate to the US and help establish a NASCAR team in the United States. Steiner agreed, as he wasn’t keen on continuing in F1. He ultimately departed with a $3 Million payday for Mooresville, North Carolina.
Red Bull would bring in the reputed Adrian Newey from McLaren, who would change the team’s fate. Meanwhile, Steiner would come across a wealthy American investor who would bring him back to F1.
How Steiner met Gene Haas?
Guenther Steiner moved to Mooresville, North Carolina, where he still resides to this day. Here the Haas boss established a company called Fireworks Composites. This Fibreworks, Steiner met Joe Custer and Gene Haas of Haas Automation.
Haas owned a NASCAR team and was looking to enter F1. Steiner used his expertise in running an F1 team and asked the businessman to invest in the US F1 project. The project failed, but Steiner pushed Haas to invest in his own F1 team.
After rounds of discussions, Custer and Haas agreed, and this led to the inception of the Haas F1 team. The Amercian team announced its entry in 2014 and joined the F1 grid in 2016 as the first American constructor in over 30 years.
Needless to say, Steiner was appointed the team principal, a position he still holds to this day. Despite being rejected and fired by the F1 bosses, he leads a team and is one of the most recognizable characters in the grid.
