Haas secured an all-new driver line-up for the 2025 F1 season, but Guenther Steiner would not have signed Esteban Ocon to join Oliver Bearman if he were still in charge.
Steiner steered the Haas ship from the team’s creation in 2014, through their debut in 2016 and to his exit after the 2023 term. Owner Gene Haas elected against renewing the 60-year-old’s contract and promoted Ayao Komatsu to become their team principal in January 2024.
Komatsu took on a daunting challenge as Steiner departed after the second-worst season in Haas’ history. Yet after they scored just 12 points and were 10th in the 2023 F1 constructors’ championship, Komatsu led Haas to seventh in 2024 with 58 points – their most since 2018.
The Japanese engineer also oversaw a lot of changes as Komatsu removed the ‘fear’ Steiner spread amongst Haas’ engineers. He would also replace both of their drivers for the 2025 F1 season, with Bearman and Ocon taking the drives of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen.
Guenther Steiner would have kept Nico Hulkenberg at Haas over signing Esteban Ocon
Yet Steiner feels he might have been able to tempt Hulkenberg to stay at Haas instead of the 37-year-old moving to Sauber as a factory Audi driver if the Italian-American was still at their helm. Hulkenberg signed a three-year, £16.5m Audi contract before Haas hired a successor.
Komatsu moved quickly to lock Bearman down with a two-year contract last July to become a full-time F1 driver with Haas. But Steiner would not have matched his replacement’s move to also sign Ocon on a two-year contract after Alpine opted against extending his contract.
READ MORE: Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg’s life outside F1 from wife to height
“I think I would have signed Ollie Bearman,” Steiner told the BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast. “And what I always say is I would have tried to keep Nico because I think Nico is a very good driver. And I think, maybe, if I would have been there, maybe he would have stayed.
“I don’t know [if I could have tempted Hulkenberg to stay at Haas]. You never know. We will never know because we cannot make it happen. But that’s what I would have tried to do.”
Esteban Ocon is still chasing consistency since joining Oliver Bearman at Haas
While Steiner would have at least tried to see Hulkenberg sign a new contract with Haas, the German took his future into his own hands to help Audi mould Sauber for the brand’s debut in 2026. But it has seen Hulkenberg struggle at Sauber due to high-speed balance problems.
The German earned his only points of the 2025 F1 season so far in the first race of the term, and Sauber doubt they can repeat Hulkenberg’s P7 in the Australian GP on pure merit. He is yet to build on his six points with a P15 finish in China, P16 in Japan and P15 in Saudi Arabia.
READ MORE: Haas driver Esteban Ocon’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend
Haas are also not seeing consistent form from the driver Steiner would not have signed over keeping Hulkenberg with Ocon scoring 14 points to Bearman’s six. Ten of Ocon’s points were partly thanks to Ferrari’s double disqualification at the Chinese GP lifting him from P7 to P5.
Already, Karun Chandhok thinks Bearman is Haas’ team leader, as well, after securing points with P8 in China, P10 in Japan and P10 in Bahrain where he started from last on the grid. He also finished the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 20.529 seconds ahead of Ocon but in P13 and 14.
