10 January 2024 , 17:00
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Less than a year ago, I sat across a table from Guenther Steiner as he told me what the Haas Formula 1 team means to him.
He did not have his name on the door. He did not own it. But, as far as he was concerned, it was his team. During our conversation, he referred to it as his "brainchild".
And Steiner was well within his rights to call it that. He was the one who went to Gene Haas with the idea of creating America's F1 team. The businessman stumped up the cash, but Steiner was the one who put in the hard yards.
It was his relationships with Ferrari and chassis builders Dallara which helped the team to get onto the grid, striking engine and car composite supply deals. As for personnel, Steiner famously interviewed each and every member of the team before they were given job offers.
And he has led them on the track too. That, however, has been Steiner's downfall - there have been high moments and some impressive achievements for a privateer team, but results over the past few years simply have not been good enough.
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Gene Haas loves motorsport, but he is first and foremost a businessman. He needs to get the most bang for his buck that he can, and rock-bottom finishes in two of the last three seasons have simply not been good enough.
Steiner has brought great benefit to the team over the years, not least from a marketing perspective. His own growing popularity has provided opportunities for the team to get in front of more eyes and they have cashed in on that - most notably, in the form of the lucrative title sponsorship deal with MoneyGram.
Gene Haas has made a ruthless decision (Getty Images)But performance remains key and that was at the heart of what Haas said when he broke the news that he had dismissed Steiner. "We have had some successes, but we need to be consistent in delivering results that help us reach our wider goals as an organization," he said.
Clearly, Haas took all the emotion out of the equation when he made this decision. That was reflected in the press release which featured just one sentence from him about Steiner, which was 28 words long. Hardly a fitting send-off for a man who led his team for 10 years.
This is business, though. And for many the timing will feel right. That includes some team staff who would previously have gone to war for Steiner. In recent times, there has been a growing belief within the team that a change at the top might be required.
Pleasingly, Haas have promoted Steiner's replacement from within. Ayao Komatsu, one of the outgoing boss' top lieutenants, will take on the top job having served most recently as director of engineering. He has 20 years of F1 paddock experience and everyone will wish him well as he leads a team for the first time.
Steiner will be included among those who will hope to see Komatsu and the team thrive. But right now he will undoubtedly be in pain. In that conversation we had last April, he made it clear he envisioned a long future ahead with the team.
He said: "I've got this passion to bring the team to a place where, one day, it can be without me. But we're not there yet... I.ve still got things which I want to do." Sadly, he won't get the chance to try.