Haas Team Principal, Drive To Survive Superstar Guenther Steiner Announces Shock Departure From Team

We're a couple of weeks from Formula 1 teams starting to unveil their 2024 cars, but there's a shocking piece of news coming from Haas: Guenther Steiner is out.

The news broke on Wednesday and genuinely seemed to come out of nowhere. It was revealed that Steiner's departure is effective immediately. He is being replaced by Ayao Komatsu, who is being promoted after serving as the team's Director of Engineering.

Steiner had led Haas since the team debuted on the grid in 2016. This made him the third-longest tenured team principal on the grid behind Red Bulls' Christian Horner and Mercedes' Toto Wolff.

Haas has promoted Director of Engineering Ayao Komatsu to team principal. (Photo by Qian Jun/MB Media/Getty Images)

Director of Engineering Ayao Komatsu Will Take Over As Team Principal

Team owner Gene Haas thanked Steiner in a statement for his work leading the only American team on the F1 grid.

“I’d like to start by extending my thanks to Guenther Steiner for all his hard work over the past decade and I wish him well for the future,” Haas said. “Moving forward as an organization it was clear we need to improve our on-track performances. In appointing Ayao Komatsu as Team Principal we fundamentally have engineering at the heart of our management.”

Like Steiner, Komatsu has been with the team since its inception, so his transition into the team principal should be nice and smooth.

“I’m naturally very excited to have the opportunity to be Team Principal at MoneyGram Haas F1 Team,” Komatsu said. “Having been with the team since its track-debut back in 2016 I’m obviously passionately invested in its success in Formula 1. I’m looking forward to leading our program and the various competitive operations internally to ensure we can build a structure that produces improved on-track performances.”

Given where Haas is right now, a team boss switch may be a smart call. (Photo by Clive Mason - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Steiner Leaving Is A Shock But Makes Some Sense Given Where Haas Is Right Now

While this news seemed out of nowhere, Formula1.com reports that Haaz and Steiner talked about the future over the winter break. It was then that the decision to part ways was made.

Steiner is one of the most popular personalities in the sport. Furthermore, the team saw some successes under his leadership. They scored points in their very first race, the 2016 Australian Grand Prix. Kevin Magnussen also took pole during a rainy qualifying session at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix.

However, after a P8 finish in the constructors' standings, the team regressed to P10. While they showed some serious single-lap pace in qualifying. That was thanks to their cars' ability to rapidly heat its tires. Ironically, that same characteristic was their downfall on Sundays. If Magnussen or teammate Nico Hulkenberg managed to qualify well, it all slipped away as they chewed through their tires on the opening stint.

There's some serious potential in Haas' current concept, and surely they've been working on finding that missing race pace.

With a consistent driver lineup that performed well enough last season and a car concept that is working to a degree the most logical place to make a change was by swapping Steiner for Komatsu.

We'll see how it shakes out — and perhaps even more interesting, where Steiner may land — as the season progresses. I hope he lands somewhere because, man, I love having that guy involved in F1.

But, man, talk about an unexpected bombshell in early to mid-January.

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