Guenther Steiner’s “Shouting & Screaming” at Mick Schumacher Condemned as Reason for Haas’ Failure Emerges

Guenther Steiner was the face of the Haas F1 team. He was instrumental in forming the team and keeping it afloat during the worst times when the team owner Gene Haas stopped investing in the team through strategic partnerships. His departure as the team boss has come as a shock to many in the F1 community. However, many experts believe that it’s not as shocking as it looks from the outside. According to ex-Ferrari boss Peter Windsor, Guenther Steiner was more of a failure when it came to managing his drivers.

Mick Schumacher, son of Formula 1 legend and 7-time world champion Michael Schumacher got promoted to F1 after winning the F1 championship in 2020. However, he didn’t manage to live up to the hype surrounding him. However, one could say that he didn’t have the best machinery underneath him. But that didn’t stop Guenther Steiner from openly criticizing Mick on various occasions.

Windsor believes Guenther Steiner failed when it came to getting the best out of his drivers

The 2022 season was particularly tough for Mick Schumacher. Where a returning Kevin Magnussen managed to consistently stay in the points throughout the season, Schumacher struggled to do so and even crashed out heavily on many occasions, giving the team massive financial blows in a strict cost-cap era. And Guenther Steiner did not shy away from criticizing the young German driver in his media interactions.

Mick was ultimately let go by the team at the end of 2022 making way for the return of Nico Hulkenberg. Following his exit, the 24-year-old criticized Guenther’s decision. He described the situation at Haas as ‘suboptimal’ addressing the criticism he faced from Steiner about the financial toll of Schumacher’s crashes. The former Ferrari boss seems to agree with this assessment. Speaking about Guenther’s ability to manage the drivers in his recent Live chat on YouTube, Windsor said, “I would say the Guenther I know from Jaguar and from Haas, probably isn’t the greatest of driver managers and getting the best from the drivers that I could think of.”

“I don’t think he got the best from Mick Schumacher for example,” he added. “There was a little bit too much shouting and screaming and not enough you know, let’s keep things calm and highlight the best qualities of the drivers we’ve got. I don’t think he regularly gets the best from Kevin Magnussen, to be honest, or has done. And then you got Nico [Hulkenberg] in the other car who’s just you know the ultimate professional racing driver. But it’s possible that with a calmer management style, both those drivers will be able to contribute more to the team.“

READ MORE: F1 News: ‘It Was Guenther Steiner’s Team’: F1 Champ Highlights Great Irony of Gene Haas’ Involvement in F1

Having served Haas tirelessly for 8 years, what led Gene Haas to not extend  Guenther’s contract beyond 2023?

Gene Haas didn’t agree with Guenther’s vision for the team

There’s no denying the fact that Guenther Steiner was instrumental in keeping Haas alive when things didn’t look good for the team during the COVID pandemic. However, when it came to the future of the team, Guenther didn’t see eye-to-eye with the team owner Gene Haas. According to Steiner, Haas needed steady investments in the coming years for the team to grow. On the other hand, Gene Haas believed that Haas had underperformed and that the team did not need extra resources to achieve better results.

Gene Haas, whose goal for entering Formula 1 was to promote his Automation business instead of looking for financial gains had stopped investing in the team a long time ago. Appointing Ayao Komatsu, who served as the director of engineering, as the new team principal shows Gene’s commitment to restructuring the team with technical expertise at the core. Whether or not Komatsu will be able to extract more out of the team without extra resources remains to be seen. However, it will give us confirmation on whether Gene or Guenther was right about what the team needs.

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Do you think Haas will be able to achieve more with Guenther Steiner out of the picture? Share your insights down below in the comments.