32-year-old Formula 1 driver admits falling out with Guenther Steiner over Haas exit

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Guenther Steiner has worked with several very strong drivers while team principal of Haas, but his relationship with Esteban Gutierrez isn’t too rosy.

Haas will be lining up with Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen in the car once again in 2024.

However, their first driver line-up looked very different when they joined Formula 1 and included Mexican racer Esteban Gutierrez.

The 32-year-old lined up alongside Romain Grosjean that year although the Frenchman later admitted he doesn’t think he was the team’s first choice.

Haas scored 29 points during their debut campaign to finish ahead of long-established F1 teams Renault and Sauber as well as MRT.

However, every single point was scored by Grosjean after having a point to prove after being let go by Lotus who were renamed Renault over the winter.

Esteban Gutierrez had established himself in Formula 1 at this point having spent two seasons with Sauber.

Unfortunately, Gutierrez had just one points finish to his name – a seventh place in Japan – during those two years and was let go by the team, but Guenther Steiner gave him his chance at Haas.

It wasn’t a partnership that worked out for either party though.

Twelve months later, Gutierrez was looking for a race seat again and Danish driver Kevin Magnussen was brought in as his replacement.

Gutierrez didn’t see eye to eye with Steiner at Haas

Talking about his exit from the team, Gutierrez said: “The relationship didn’t work with the team overall.

“There were some inside dynamics that I didn’t really feel comfortable with.

“Then, of course, the performance aspect of the argument that Guenther [Steiner] had at the end, which I was quite disappointed when I asked him, ‘Okay, why didn’t you consider keeping me as a driver?’ And his answer was ‘Because you didn’t score points.’

“And I’m like, okay, that’s a disappointing answer because it’s not a valid argument when I was so many times 11th and very close to the points, really consistent, consistently quicker as well on race pace, quick on quali and many times when I was about to score the points, [we had] mechanical failures.”

Haas team principal Steiner knew he had to be cut-throat at the start of his tenure to keep the team heading in the right direction and that meant letting Gutierrez go.

As the Mexican pointed out, he managed to finish 11^th on five occasions, showing how close he was to scoring consistent points.

Five retirements across the season didn’t help either, but when Grosjean bagged a sixth and fifth place in his first two races, it highlighted the gap between the two drivers.