Guenther Steiner admits ‘I wouldn’t be here’ if one thing happened at Haas

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Guenther Steiner admits that he ‘wouldn’t be here’ if the Haas team principal did not believe his team were pushing to deliver a big upgrade package for the US Grand Prix.

The American-owned squad have produced a frustrating season this year with just 12 points on the board. Nico Hulkenberg has also scored nine of their 12 points to Kevin Magnussen’s mere three. But the German delivered six of his points at the Australian Grand Prix this April.

Hulkenberg dragged Haas back into the points during the Sprint event at the Austrian GP in July, as well. While Magnussen has scored his points with P10 finishes at the Saudi Arabian, Miami and Singapore Grand Prix. But Haas’ issues with the VF-23 have cost them results.

Steiner admits he ‘wouldn’t be here’ without belief in Haas

The VF-23 has shown flashes of pace during qualifying this year but then suffers horrific tyre degradation during the races. Magnussen has also bemoaned how ‘fragile’ the Haas car is in qualifying as it stops him from producing consistent times, on top of its awful tyre problems.

Haas have had little success adapting the set-up of the VF-23 to resolve its tyre degradation problems. But Steiner believes in the American-owned squad’s desire to improve and deliver an important upgrade package for Haas’ home round at the US Grand Prix later this month.

“We’re working hard to get out of this hole and that’s what motivates me every day of the week,” he noted, via quotes by F1i.com. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t know we’re working hard and getting better to where we want to be and should be.

“We know our car and that we’re struggling at the moment in the race – everyone is well aware of this. Always, the whole team tries to do their best, starting with the drivers, to the mechanics and engineers, squeezing everything out of what we’ve got.”

Haas’ US GP upgrades are a preview for their 2024 F1 car

Steiner states that Haas’ upgrades are ‘on-plan’ and that ‘everything should be done’ in time for the US Grand Prix. But the Italian-American engineer cannot guarantee what impact they will have. Haas also view the upgrades as a preview for their all-new-for-2024 aero concept.

“We don’t know how good the upgrade will be, we expect something good out of it,” added Steiner. “But the best thing is that we’re going in the direction we want to go next year and we will learn a lot this year for next season.”

Haas finished eighth in the constructors’ championship during the first season with Formula 1’s ground-effect cars last year. They scored 37 points with Magnussen scoring 25 for P13 in the drivers’ standings. Mick Schumacher finished the year in P16 with 12 points to his name.