There’s no team on the F1 grid like Haas with the first American team enjoying a rollercoaster decade in the sport.
Flying the name of owner Gene Haas, the team were established in 2014, two years before making their debut. The charismatic Guenther Steiner was the brains behind the project. Having been the managing director of Jaguar Racing and technical operations director of its predecessor Red Bull Racing.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star Sport, via 247bet, Steiner delved into the work he had to put in to form Haas and his time as team principal until his departure in 2024.
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He said: “The biggest thing always is to find the right people. That is the biggest thing. And I think I got lucky finding a lot of good people, because you cannot do it alone. It’s all about the people you work with. Anybody can buy if they’ve got money and the equipment, but the people, you need to convince them if you are to succeed.
“And it’s not only finding good people, but it’s also people who are thinking alike, like you, what they want to do, to be on a mission, as I said before.
“Was that ever a problem for me? No. I mean, I’m not the guy who gives up easily. The Haas challenge was so big, and there were so many naysayers out there that you actually wanted to prove them wrong. So there was that was a motivation in addition that meant throwing in the towel was never on the cards.”
Haas are still waiting for their first race win with their best years coming while fighting at the front of the midfield. They are still waiting for their first podium too, celebrating a best finish of P4 from Romain Grosjean at the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix and Ollie Bearman in the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix.
But such was the magnitude of the project, the moment they finally took to the track after years of setbacks was when Steiner felt his work was vindicated.
“I think the first time was when we went to Barcelona for the first test [in 2016]. You know, that was like, okay, we got here, we are well set up, we missed a lot of little things, but we have got everything to be a Formula 1 team. And we got the respect of the other teams because again, all the naysayers, all of a sudden, were like, wow, this actually happened,” he said.
“They are here, they have got cars ready to go out there testing, it’s all coming. So I think that was the first moment when I realised, okay, we have got an F1 team here.”