Steiner Was Allegedly Trying To 'Convert His Popularity Into Shares' In Haas Team
F1Wednesday, 17 January 2024 at 23:00
Helmut Marko recently shared another likely reason for Guenther Steiner's sudden and surprising departure from the Haas F1 team.
Guenther Steiner has been an essential member of the Haas team ever since its inception in 2016. Therefore, it hit everybody by surprise when his replacement and departure from the team with immediate effect were announced last week.
Many speculated on possible reasons for the exit, and the owner of the American team, Gene Haas, gave his reason to the official F1 website.
He said the sole reason for Steiner's replacement were insufficient results of the team over the course of eight seasons of its presence in F1
However, Red Bull Racing's advisor Helmut Marko revealed to F1-Insider that he heard rumors about a different reason that could have caused the separation of Steiner from the team. He said:
"Let’s put it this way: Anyone who becomes too popular through a documentary like Netflix tends to take off. But if you fly too high too quickly, you will fall more quickly."
The 58-year-old former team principal became super famous over the course of the last few seasons. One of the main reasons was his appearance in F1's Netflix TV series "Drive To Survive."
As a matter of fact, Haas's team principal was the third most broadcasted team principal in 2023 after Christian Horner and Toto Wolff, despite being from the last team on the grid. Marko continued:
"All I heard was that he wanted to convert his popularity into shares in the team. And owner Gene Haas didn't like that anymore."
Steiner has become something like the face of Haas and many fans supported the F1 team because of the him. Was the 58-year-old really trying to convert his fame into shares? Maybe we will find out in the future. Marko added:
"It is also the case in our sport that the team always comes before the individual. Steiner became a victim of his popularity."
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