Steiner concludes: 'Stayed too long at Haas F1'

"Life has been good since I left Haas ahead of this season," Steiner wrote in his column for Formula1.com. "These last few weeks are the first time I’ve switched off from F1 for around a decade. This time has been good for me."

The team principal, who was at the helm of the American formation for many years, increasingly feels that perhaps he should have said goodbye earlier. "The longer time goes on, the more I can see that I stayed at Haas too long. When you step away, you get clarity – and you can see what you need to do. While you’re there, you’re in denial, you think you can do it but you cannot," he states.

Haas F1 in grey middle ground

For Haas F1, there was never more in it than fighting for a place in the middle of the pack. In 2018, the team finished fifth in the constructors' championship, followed by worse years. The 2022 season was then the 'least bad' with an eighth place in the World Championship.

Steiner wanted more, but he doesn't feel that could happen at Haas F1. "When I was there, with what we had, you could still fight for being seventh, eighth or ninth – but you couldn’t fight for podiums without the same weapons as the other guys. Doing that in the long-term is not what I want to do in life. I don’t want to be seventh again. I’ve done that. I want to be able to fight, to battle at the front."

But that takes a lot of years, history shows. "When Toto Wolff started with Mercedes, the team at the time was not at the top. Yes, they had the advantage of the engine at the beginning, but he set everything up right to be successful in the mid-term – and they won eight constructors’ championships. It’s the same thing with Red Bull. How long did it take for them to get there? Every year, they kept on getting better. You need that patience and long-term planning," Steiner concluded.