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Former Haas team principal made his first appearance at the Autosport awards show where he revealed that he would not be returning to F1 for a while. Steiner has been part of the sport for a while. It's a journey where he's been in the paddock for close to two decades.
The last decade has been intense in his role as the team principal of Haas. There are many areas where the team falls short and in those areas, if the situation was better, Steiner would have had an easier life at the team.
Having said that, what's past is past. There's no point in mulling over spilt milk and hence this piece aims to answer one question. Has F1 closed its doors on Steiner's face once and for all?
Was his termination the correct decision from Haas?
To answer the question first we need to address the elephant in the room. Was Guenther Steiner's firing justified? To keep it short, no. It wasn't. The major problem was Haas was not the direction that their team principal had taken. It was the direction that the team owner Gene Haas took when it came to not investing in the team.
Even in his interview after Steiner's exit, Gene was steadfast in his stand that the team needed to be more efficient and one could sense that his approach was reticent when it came to putting money in the project.
This has become more and more clear in his interviews afterward as well. No team in F1 has gotten better by spending less, that's just not how the sport works. At its core, the Haas model of working is outdated and Guenther cannot be turned into a scapegoat for that.
Where could he go?
Coming to the second part is more important when we discuss the possibility of Steiner's return to F1. Fortunately for him, if we look at vacancies in top brass on the grid then many are not filled yet.
Alpine has an interim team principal in Bruno Famin, Andretti is an American team waiting in the wings and AlphaTauri seems to be a team looking to expand its senior management with both Laurent Mekies and Peter Bayer being the recent recruits.
In terms of options, there are certainly a few on the F1 grid for Steiner after his decade-long journey at Haas.
How was his tenure at Haas?
When we talk about Guenther and his tenure at Haas, there are still questions that need answering. Most important of all is how was his stint at Haas. While one cannot deny that there were some very obvious deficiencies that Guenther had to work around, there were areas where one had to assume Steiner was the problem.
If the eight-year stint for Haas only has drivers like Romain Grosjean, Esteban Gutierrez, Kevin Magnussen, Nikita Mazepin, Mick Schumacher, and Nico Hulkenberg, then there's something wrong there. The continued perseverance with Magnussen and Grosjean was a surprise for all these years and even in 2023, the Danish driver getting an extension led to calls of favoritism from the media.
Even in terms of management, one cannot say that Steiner took everything from the car and the team which was possible in terms of results. Haas was arguably one of the more inefficient teams in that respect and that should be attributed to the team principal.
To add to this, the way Mick Schumacher was handled within Haas and how Steiner minted money by releasing a book with choice words for the young German driver a year later was in bad taste.
Steiner did become a personality in F1 after his Drive to Survive stint but was he one of the standout team principals on the grid? The answer to that is no he wasn't.
Who is his competitor?
We've had a look at how good Steiner was and what vacancies are available on the grid. Now let's take a look at who the Americans could be competing with for these possible slots on the grid. Some of the more prominent names that pop up in this case are Otmar Szafneur and Mattia Binotto.
Szafneur has a stellar and proven record at Force India and even with Alpine, one cannot say that his run wasn't good.
Similarly, for Binotto, there's praise from different quarters in F1 with the Swiss being responsible for some of the impressive Ferraris over the years.
These two names are certainly going to be at the top of the list of the names that one would look for to lead their F1 teams.
What are the chances of Guenther Steiner's return to F1?
Coming to the final and arguably the most important point. What are the chances of Guenther Steiner's return to the sport? In all fairness, there is a very high likelihood that we will not see Steiner come back.
His stint at Haas did see him raise his social profile to an extent but as a team principal, there weren't many that he impressed and made their heads turn. At the same time, with alternatives like Mattia Binotto and Otmar Szafneur who have arguably a better resume waiting in the wings, it becomes hard to see where Steiner would be preferred over these two.
After a decade-long stint in the sport, Steiner has now left the sport and in all likelihood, his return looks highly unlikely.
