Why the Steiner-Haas F1 team divorce is best for both parties

Upon Wednesday's announcement of Haas' decision not to resume Guenther Steiner's stewardship of its Formula 1 team, the news was accompanied by an uproarious reverberation of discontent. The cult fandom that the Italian-American has commanded throughout his tenure in charge of Haas had, naturally, lent him an outpouring of support when it became apparent that team owner Gene Haas would not renew Steiner's deal into 2024 and beyond. A change of direction at the team was cited as the key reason.

The key points of conflict are thus: Steiner believed that the team needed considerably greater investment from Haas after sinking to the bottom of the constructors' championship. Although the operation is hardly run on a shoestring, it has had to do a lot with comparatively little since joining the field in 2016, and has made use of its Ferrari technical partnership in order to bypass many of the running costs associated with team ownership. Haas, conversely, felt that Steiner's management methods had not best employed the resources that he already had access to; with Ferrari's Maranello campus on tap, and bases in the UK and US, the team already has a range of infrastructures at its fingertips.