Getting Fired Was a RELIEF: Guenther Steiner on the Truth About His Haas Exit (E433)

**Guenther Steiner** (0:03)
You can have an opinion about me, I do not care.

**Damian Hughes** (0:06)
The decision to leave Haas was taken away from you.

**Guenther Steiner** (0:09)
My vision was different than the owners.

**Damian Hughes** (0:10)
Do you feel that you stayed too long with Haas?

**Guenther Steiner** (0:13)
Yeah, I think I stayed two years too long.

**Damian Hughes** (0:15)
The Drive to Survive series almost created what I would see as a bit of a caricature of you.

**Guenther Steiner** (0:20)
I don't regret it. I'm perfectly fine with what it is because I know who I am.

**Damian Hughes** (0:25)
But do you feel it did affect people's perception of you?

**Guenther Steiner** (0:29)
How do you perceive me? When you are doing something seven, eight, nine years, to get always to get a point in F1. Will I ever reach the podium with what I've got?
No.

**Damian Hughes** (0:40)
Did the call from Gene come as a surprise?
Well, Guenther, it's brilliant to have you back again in the high performance chair. You're a guy that's been making decisions for a long time and yet the decision to leave Haas was taken away from you. Would you tell us about that?

**Guenther Steiner** (1:00)
It was taken away, but I was pretty happy that it was taken away. Sometimes you want to make a decision, but then you don't. Then when it comes to it, I was very happy when it happened because I didn't agree with where the team was going. My vision was different than the owner's. Obviously, he owns the team so he can do whatever he wants. I mean, he has fully right to do that. He doesn't have to ask me.
I'm a big believer in one door closest, two opens. Obviously, in the moment, too many doors open for me because I'm too busy.

**Damian Hughes** (1:32)
Well, we'll talk about some of those doors that open for you in terms of your move into MotoGP in a while. But would you take us to the moment when you received the phone call?

**Guenther Steiner** (1:42)
Yeah, it was in a supermarket. I answered and there was a discussion, you know, this year was bad and I said, yeah, but we have been working on next year because obviously sometimes you have to know when you cannot recover something.

**Damian Hughes** (2:00)
And who was on the other end of the phone?

**Guenther Steiner** (2:01)
Gene Haas. Gene Haas. Yeah, Gene was on the other end of the phone. And I think to also say this was 23 Obviously 23, the car was not good. I mean, we had problems, but we sorted the problems because you saw what the car did in 24 The car was one of the better cars Haas ever had had nothing to do with the people which came in afterwards. That was clearly done 23 when Simone Resta was there. And Simone left as well. I mean, Simone was a technical director at the time, and he left with me at the end of that year. And he's now at Mercedes, deputy technical director, and they are doing pretty well. So, and that car was a good base to go forward. But for me, it was okay. I mean, it's like I was there long enough. For me, it's not like hanging on to something.
I won't have the possibility to achieve something. And it is not possible.

**Damian Hughes** (2:51)
And can you remember what was the food aisle you were in when you received the call?

**Guenther Steiner** (2:55)
I was at the deli counter, picking up my ham for the night, or salami, and okay, and my wife was with me. And we were there, and it was quite funny. He says, I'm not with Haas anymore. I said, what do you mean, you're not? You're not in the supermarket, you're not on the cell phone. Okay, and it's okay.
We went and went home and had dinner, and I slept perfectly, and I was even happier the next morning when I got up. Because again, for me, a new world opened, and I just wanted to move on in life.

**Damian Hughes** (3:32)
And I know you've spoken about that ability to process a situation and move on quickly, so did the call from Gene Cummers a surprise?

**Guenther Steiner** (3:41)
No, no, no, because the relationship wasn't good for a while. It was not what it was in the beginning, because I didn't agree with the vision of the team.
And I know myself well enough, if I don't agree with something, I'm not very collaborative, and I tried to fix it, and I had ideas how to fix it, all that, but it was not welcome to have ideas. It was more like, this is what we need to do, and my opinion was, how you want to do it is not working. It will not work for the future, because the sport had changed. With the Budget Cup coming, the sport had changed, and you need to adapt to changes. Because when we came in, we could do things differently, but the sport changed, that these teams, they got very, in the moment for a team, to get the best out of the Budget Cup money is to be efficient in production. I mean, it's clearly you can see, and if you have not your own production, you cannot be efficient, you know?