Guenther Steiner has revealed he saw the worst season in the history of Haas coming, so told a Formula 1 star it would be ‘painful’ if he signed with them for the 2021 term.
The Italian-American held the reigns at Haas for a decade, having joined the project from its beginning in 2014 through to the end of the 2023 Formula 1 season. Haas made their debut in the pinnacle of motorsport in 2016 but remain without a Grand Prix win or podium finish.
Steiner was also at the helm when Haas enjoyed their best season to date in 2018 and their worst campaign as a Formula 1 team so far in 2021. Haas hired two rookie drivers that term with Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin but failed to score a single point over 22 rounds.
Haas would even finish the 2023 season last in the F1 constructors’ championship but took 12 points with Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg. So, owner Gene Haas opted against extending Steiner’s contract, and promoted Ayao Komatsu to become Haas’ team principal.
Guenther Steiner told Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen it would be ‘painful’ to race for Haas in 2021
But Haas knew 2021 would be a very difficult term before Schumacher and Mazepin arrived. So, Steiner admits he told Romain Grosjean and Magnussen they ‘don’t want to’ be at Haas in 2021 when he called the pair to inform them that their contracts would not be extended.
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Steiner wanted Grosjean and Magnussen to know that the 2021 season would be ‘painful’ if they had stayed at Haas after the American crew did zero development. F1 allowed teams to use their 2020 cars for 2021 to help manage the financial impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Steiner told the BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast: “In 2020, we didn’t do any development… In Formula 1, it’s difficult when you develop to keep up with the big teams.
“But if you stop because we mothballed the wind tunnel, we didn’t do any development, all the people who did the research, development and design didn’t do anything the whole year. So, you can’t expect any more.
“And I was well aware of what will happen. And, actually, when I let Kevin and Romain go on the telephone call, I told them, actually, ‘Guys, you don’t want to be here next year because this will be painful for you guys’.
“At the time, they thought I just wanted to soften my speech, just make me feel better about it. But years later they said, ‘Guenther, thank god we weren’t there in 2021’, because they could see it from outside.”
Romain Grosjean secured Haas’ best result in F1 to date with P4 at the 2018 Austrian GP
Grosjean had been a part of Haas’ project since their debut in 2016, while Magnussen came in to replace Esteban Gutierrez in 2017. Magnussen also re-joined Haas in 2022 after Steiner acted under pressure to replace Mazepin, who was there due to his Russian father’s money.
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Magnussen returning to Haas helped turn their fortunes around as he scored 25 of their 37 points beside Schumacher that year. The Dane, also thanks to F1’s Sprint format at the time, also took their only pole when Magnussen won qualifying at the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Grosjean, on the other hand, has never returned to F1 since leaving Haas two rounds before the end of the 2020 term. His final race in the pinnacle of motorsport was Grosjean’s fireball crash at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, before going to race in IndyCar and endurance racing.
Haas ran Grosjean in a total of 98 Grands Prix, with a best result of fourth place in the 2018 Austrian GP. It also remains the team’s best result having never finished on an F1 podium or matched what the Frenchman produced at the Red Bull Ring when Magnussen was even P5.
Grosjean did enjoy 10 Grand Prix podiums over his F1 career, however, which he secured for Lotus between 2012 to 2015. He first made the walk onto a rostrum at the 2012 Bahrain GP in P3 and twice sealed second, coming at the 2012 Canadian GP and 2013 United States GP.
