15 January 2024 , 13:09
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Axed Haas chief Guenther Steiner plans to spend "a few months" away from Formula 1 before thinking about his next role.
Steiner spent 10 years in charge of the Haas outfit as team principal. More than that, he conceived of the idea to create the racing outfit in the first place and took the pitch to American businessman Gene Haas, who agreed to provide funding.
But, last week, Haas announced that he had informed Steiner that his contract would not be renewed. He is replaced by Ayao Komatsu, promoted internally from his previous role as director of engineering.
So, for the first time in a decade, Steiner finds himself with an empty work calendar. And, given the toll that those 10 years took in him, he plans to keep it that way for a short while.
Speaking to reporters at the Autosport International, the Italian-American responded to questions about his next steps. He said: "At the moment, I just want to chill out a little bit. It was 10 tough years, and I've got plenty of stuff to do - there is plenty to clean up at home.
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"It is also good to stay with the family, my daughter is 14 years old, and so she is quite demanding. Trying to manage that seems to be more difficult than running an F1 team at the moment, so I'll be doing this for a few months."
Steiner also made it clear he won't be leaping at any opportunity which comes his way. He added: "If there's something interesting and which challenges me, yes - but just looking for a job just to stay in F1, maybe that's not what I want."
Steiner was informed of his departure in a phone call from Haas between Christmas and the New Year. He admitted he was surprised to get the news and said it "stung" that, because of the timing of the announcement, he was not able to say a proper goodbye to his staff.
He said: "I didn't have the chance to say thank you to a few people when I left Haas F1. I would just like to thank all the team members who I couldn't give a proper goodbye to when I left. So, I'll do it this way. And I want to say also to all the fans who supported us while I was there, it's fantastic - thank you to everybody for the support I got and I am getting, so I'm mega appreciative.
"It stung, but they all know me and they all know that I appreciate what they did. It's always best to say it to them, it would be nice to say, 'Hey guys, thanks for what you did for the team'."