Guenther Steiner says ‘preacher man’ team principal has F1 fans fooled after poor season

Former Haas boss Guenther Steiner has named his best team principal of the 2024 F1 season. He went with McLaren’s Andrea Stella, who delivered the team’s first championship since 1998.

McLaren came under heavy fire for their management decisions in 2024, particularly their reluctance to prioritise Lando Norris’ drivers’ title bid until the autumn. This policy, in addition to a string of strategic errors, may have prevented Norris applying serious pressure to Max Verstappen.

However, Steiner, who was speaking on the Red Flags Podcast, preferred to focus on the end of McLaren’s quarter-century drought. They finished fourth in last year’s championship but surged to the front of the field after a transformative upgrade package at the Miami GP.

Indeed, while McLaren have made operational mistakes during races, they’ve been in a class of one when it comes to car development. Ferrari’s Fred Vasseur also deserves credit, even if his team missed out by 14 points.

That’s as close as the Scuderia have come to the title since the introduction of the current points system in 2010. On the other hand, Christian Horner oversaw Red Bull’s slide down to third place, while Toto Wolff and Mercedes were a distant fourth.

In the midfield, Steiner’s successor Ayao Komatsu impressed, while mid-season appointee Oliver Oakes helped to stabilise Alpine before their late charge to sixth place. It was a brutal year for James Vowles, though, as Williams finished second from bottom.

Guenther Steiner says James Vowles’ ‘stories’ at Williams have fooled F1 fans

Williams scored 28 points in 2023, which was enough for seventh in the standings, so this year looked like a step back. They only managed to finish ahead of Sauber, who didn’t score points until the penultimate round in Qatar.

Vowles overhauled Williams’ processes in the winter, which meant they had a lack of spare parts in the early rounds of the season. This had dramatic consequences at the Australian GP, when the former Mercedes strategist benched Logan Sargeant and allowed Alex Albon to race in his car – even though the Thai driver had broken his chassis in practice.

Vowles would drop Sargeant after he wrecked an upgrade package with a clumsy shunt at the Dutch GP in August. His replacement, Franco Colapinto, was initially electric, but suffered a spate of accidents himself before the end of the year.

The result is that Williams will ‘probably’ breach the F1 cost cap. The extent of their overspend will determine the severity of any penalty.

And yet, F1 fans nominated Vowles for the podcast’s best team principal award. Steiner was in disbelief at this revelation, but suspects that the 45-year-old has talked his way into favour.

“[Williams] have no chassis for five races, haven’t improved from last year,” Steiner said. “Who put him in there? Maybe because he’s telling the best stories. He’s a preacher man.”

Franco Colapinto ignored James Vowles’ advice before brutal Williams blow

Vowles’ move for Colapinto initially looked like a masterstroke. In just his third race, he finished an outstanding eighth at the Azerbaijan GP, whereas predecessor Sargeant only had one 10th-place finish to his name in 18 months.

While there wasn’t a risk-free senior option available, promoting the untried Colapinto was still a risk. And this was evident in his crashes at the Sao Paulo and Las Vegas Grands Prix.

The pit wall watched as Williams’ drivers amassed a seven-figure repair bill in Brazil. Vowles urged Colapinto to be cautious in Vegas, but the Argentine didn’t fully heed his warning as a qualifying misjudgement devastated the weary mechanics.

Vowles was braced for a difficult season but even he wouldn’t have expected a sequence like this. It’s been a uniquely challenging year for the Englishman, but Steiner clearly feels he made mistakes.