Breaking news

Formula 1

Steiner not disappointed by loss of American F1 races

Haas Formula 1 team boss Guenther Steiner insists that he wasn’t disappointed to lose all four Americas races from the 2020 calendar, despite their importance to team owner Gene Haas.

Adam Cooper

Edited: Aug 1, 2020, 11:54 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal, Haas F1

Last week F1 announced that the US, Mexican, Canadian and Brazilian events were all officially cancelled for this season due to the Covid-19 crisis.

Instead, new races at the Nurburgring, Portimao and Imola have been added to the schedule in October and early November.

Although the races on the American continent have obvious marketing value for Gene Haas and his machine tool business, Steiner says the focus on races in Europe makes more sense for cost reasons.

“First of all the disappointment not to make the flyaways is not high, because of the financials,” he said when asked by Motorsport.com.

“If they don’t support us, there’s no point to go there, if we just lose money, there’s no point to fly a long way away to lose money. And the safety of all the people is the most important thing here anyway. So that one we can live with.”

Read Also:

Asked if Haas was frustrated at the loss of the marketing exposure provided by his home race in Austin, Steiner said that the team owner had accepted it.

“He knows that it’s done for a good reason, why we cannot go there, and nobody can change it,” said Steiner.

“We are all a little bit disappointed that we haven’t got the full calendar and the full revenue from the race events.

“But the pandemic came, we didn’t allow it to happen, it happened without asking us, so we just need to deal with it.”

Steiner admitted that the lack of clarity on the final total of races in 2020 makes it harder for the team to balance its budget. It has already put update plans on hold as a cost saving measure.

“It’s getting closer that we get the information about how much the number will be, but as you know it’s always too little.

“We still need to be very careful with what we are doing, and be very diligent how we are spending our money so we can get to the end with it.”

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Pirelli: Portimao resurfacing creates extra challenge

Next article Sainz: TV doesn't do "amazing" generation of F1 cars justice

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

The ten closest finishes from the 2026 NASCAR season

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup 2 h

The ten closest finishes from the 2026 NASCAR season

‘Lewis suspected a conspiracy’ – Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton F1 rivalry went awry at Mercedes

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1 3 h

‘Lewis suspected a conspiracy’ – Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton F1 rivalry went awry at Mercedes

BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC

WEC

WEC WEC

Monza

4 h

BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC

The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

6 h

The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down

Feature

Discover prime content

How seizing every chance – and making it happen – keeps Pierre Gasly’s fire burning

Formula 1

By Jake Boxall-Legge

How seizing every chance – and making it happen – keeps Pierre Gasly’s fire burning

Tough love and F1 titles – A key life lesson behind Wolff's Mercedes success

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

By Ronald Vording

Tough love and F1 titles – A key life lesson behind Wolff's Mercedes success

How Brazil showcased everything that's good about F1 - plus some that isn't

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

By Filip Cleeren

How Brazil showcased everything that's good about F1 - plus some that isn't

Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s

Formula 1

By Kevin Turner

Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts