"We didn't find any performance" - Haas team principal Guenther Steiner on why the team didn't bring many updates during the season

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner recently discussed the outfit's car development woes during the 2023 season.

Nearly every F1 team starts their season with a base car that they then keep developing throughout the year. The American outfit's development cycle and uprising introductions were slim in 2023, but according to their team principal, this was not because their bank accounts were dwindling.

Speaking to The Race, Steiner admitted that Haas' development progress in 2023 was poor. He claimed that there were no limitations in efforts or even money, but the development was mostly stagnant because they were simply not able to find any improvement in performance.

“We got hit pretty badly with not making progress in development,” Steiner said. “We put all the effort in; there was no limitation on effort, and we had the budget to do upgrades. Everybody thinks we don't do upgrades because we don't have the money, but we didn't find any performance; that was the biggest thing.”

Steiner added that the second reason why the American team was unable to bring meaningful upgrades to the VF-23 was because they were late to realize a stagnation in performance. He said that Haas needed to get better in the wind tunnel testing.

“And the other thing was that when we realised, it was a little bit late, and we should have caught that earlier. We just need to get better in the wind tunnel; otherwise, the team is not too bad. It could always be better, but it’s just that we didn’t find anything,” he added.

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Haas will be eyeing the driver market for young drivers

Although Guenther Steiner has not had the best experience with rookie drivers like Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher, he recently stated that he will be keeping an eye on the driver market to recruit young racers for his team.

"We all know what is happening with the driver market. In 2025, it opens up. At some stage, we will have new drivers coming into Formula 1 because some are getting on in their careers. You need to consider, 'Is it (hiring a rookie) the ideal situation? No'. But what is the negative, and what is the positive? At some stage, you don't have any choice, and then you just try to do the best you can," he said, via Speedcafe.

While Nikita Mazepin was removed from the sport after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Haas struggled with his successor, Mick Schumacher. The young F1 driver was unable to perform due to several reasons and crashed the car a few times, costing the team a fortune.