"I’m not saying I… I say the team" - Guenther Steiner stops short of taking credit for Haas' early season performance

Guenther Steiner stopped short of taking credit for Haas' brilliant performance in the last two races. Attributing the credit to his former colleagues, the German made it a point to highlight his contribution to the VF-24, which was developed during his reign as team principal.

Nico Hulkenberg scored a single point in Jeddah and both he and Kevin Magnussen scored a total of three points in Australia. Recently announced ambassador for the Miami GP, Guenther Steiner spoke to the media as a part of its promotional activity where he evaluated his former team's performance.

The German expected his Haas to perform well in the opening races, as he was aware of the VF24 data from the wind tunnel. Attributing the credit of the strong result to former technical director Simone Resta, the 58-year-old highlighted his own role in the development, claiming that a majority of the car was assembled before his exit.

As reported by Planet F1, Guenther Steiner commented on Haas' performance saying:

“I’m not saying I… I say the team and Simone Resta did a good job because the car was done last year, it was done before I left. The car was finished, it was in assembly already. I’m very happy for the team that they score points because I like these guys.”

“A lot of people have been there since the beginning, so I have no bad feelings about that. They did a good job and I always told Gene Haas [team owner] that I actually had it right on where they ended up to be, because I knew the numbers from the wind tunnel.”

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Guenther Steiner slams Haas' approach of downplaying their performance

Guenther Steiner felt Haas' approach of downplaying their performance at the beginning of the season was wrong. The German believes it was a way of making them look better by lowering their expectations at the beginning of the year.

Although he was happy for his former team, he felt their position midway through the season would be a better outlier of their performance trajectory. The past trends have shown that Haas has always started a season well, but trailed off in the second half.

Commenting on Haas’ performance expectations and approach, Guenther Steiner said:

“I think, in the beginning, they played it down to have an excuse to start off with and then it was better than they expected. That is, for me, wrong to do. And I think everybody was convinced it was this path, I was convinced that’s what it was. But, in my opinion, it’s not about this year, it’s about the mid-term. You can go from year to year and every year you can say: ‘Oh, we are bad’ and then you do better than you are.”

“I’m actually pretty happy when they score points because I know the technical team in Italy did a good job last year. They worked very, very hard to produce the car that is running now. Only time will tell what’s happening in the future.”

Seventh in the constructors' championship, Haas is yet to prove their prowess in the development race against better-funded rivals like RB. The Faenza-based team leapfrogged them to secure sixth place in the constructors' standings. One of the reasons Guenther Steiner clashed with Gene Haas was the lack of interest in investing in revamping the team's infrastructure at Banbury.

In 2023, Haas brought late updates to the US Grand Prix in Austin with the expectation of turning around their performance in the last five races. However, the updates did not work and they ended up finishing last. A result of which led to many heads rolling including Guenther Steiner. He has now been hired as a TV pundit with Sky Sports Germany and is involved in producing a TV comedy for CBS.