Steiner under fire: 'Because of him Haas became last'

Guenther Steiner has been the cause of Haas' poor performance in 2023. That is the opinion expressed by David Croft and Ted Kravitz in Sky Sports' year-end podcast.

Haas experienced a disastrous F1 season in 2023. With Nico Hulkenberg, even more experience was recruited alongside Kevin Magnussen, with which even better performance had to be achieved than with Mick Schumacher. That did not prove easy, however, as things went downhill with the VF-23.

Haas started reasonably well in 2023 with three points finishes in the first five Grands Prix, but the team then sank further and further down. While other teams came up with various updates, Haas failed to do so. The team only came out with a major update during the United States Grand Prix, but this could have been done much earlier, according to the men from Sky Sports.

"If you look at the technical performance, Guenther is last," said Ted Kravitz, to be complemented by David Croft. "The decision not to change things up earlier in the season, I'm lead to believe came from Guenther. It came from the top. It wasn't a case of well we can't do it, it's a case of 'no we don't need to do it, let's see how things work out'."

Should Croft's information be true, it would be a big cross for Steiner. The American racing team finished last among the constructors, missing out on precious prize money. In addition, the long-awaited update did not produce the desired results either. After all, not a single point was scored after the update, either.