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Ex-Haas Formula 1 boss Guenther Steiner believes he is a candidate for a return to the paddock in a team role if some emerging opportunities “come alive”.
Steiner is a special guest on the latest episode of The Race F1 Podcast, covering a wide range of topics including looking ahead to this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.
The man who spearheaded Haas’s entry into F1 in the first place and ran the team for its entire existence up until the winter of 2023/2024 admits to being surprised at how other teams in the midfield have dropped the ball.
Steiner, who remains adamant that a strong point-scoring start to this season always looked possible for Haas, goes into the frustrations he felt about how team owner Gene Haas was limiting the outfit’s long-term potential.
He also discusses life post-Haas, including his new Miami GP ambassadorial role, and what it would take for him to take on a proper F1 position again.
But don’t expect Steiner to emerge as a candidate to assist another would-be American F1 team joining the grid, as he explains why he is still against Andretti’s so-far unsuccessful bid to convince F1 to grant it an entry.
Below you'll find extracts from The Race F1 Podcast's chat with Steiner, which you can listen to in full below:
STAYING WITH HAAS TOO LONG
“I wasn't a prisoner, I could have left before, and obviously looking back now I maybe should have.
“But it gives me now the possibility to see things from outside and understand why I got so frustrated as well.
“Now it's easier to understand because you don't have your daily job, just keep on grinding away, make sure that you do everything as best as you can.”
WOULD HE RETURN TO F1?
“In Formula 1 there’s a lot of things going on behind the scenes and I wouldn't say that I'm involved in all of them but some of them I know what's going on.
“And if some of these things come alive, I'm there, and maybe I'm a candidate for it.
“But I'm not getting up in the morning and my agenda is phoning up these and these people and lobbying to be a team principal in this or that team.”
ANDRETTI 'DOING THE RIGHT THING'
“It's better to wait for an 11th or 12th team. Maybe one team goes really bad and they say we'll let another one in - that could be an opportunity again.
"Andretti is doing the right thing. They are ready. If the opportunity arises, they are ready to go for it.
“FOM has not said no to General Motors and Andretti, they have said ‘come back in 2028 when General Motors is coming’. So they left the door open: ‘When you bring the engine, you can have a team’.”
SHOULD THE MIAMI TRACK CHANGE?
“With where it is there are challenges because you cannot do what you want to do.
“The first year, there was a challenge with the surface, they repaved the whole track.
“And now I think we have to wait a few races. You need to really understand what is needed instead of just being reactive. Changing a racetrack is very expensive and sometimes not really clear.”
