Steiner: No criticism of Ralf, but I do things my way

The mud battle in Formula 1 this year is not only taking place at the end of the action, in the back field the Haas F1 Team under Günther Steiner survives stormy water.

A battle of words broke out between Haas boss and Ralf Schumacher – after a Hungarian Grand Prix weekend in 2021, on which his nephew – Mick Schumacher – fell badly.

After the incident, Steiner told reporters that the numerous falls suffered by the 23-year-old son of Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher cost the team and had to be governed.

At this, Ralf took offense against a six-time Grand Prix winner and accused Steiner of “airing dirty laundry” at an inappropriate time and questioned what the Austrian had actually done in his role at Haas. Shots Fired!

Steiner ricocheted off with his own volley: “I don’t want to add anything to that. I do things the way I do them. I don’t think it’s gone bad so far. To make it clear that this is not a criticism of Ralf, but I do things the way I like them.

“I didn’t talk badly about Mick either. I just said it was going to be too much. I didn’t read what the media made of it, but we’ve had a lot of crashes lately. It is unnecessary and does not help anyone. That’s all i said But once again: I lead my team the way I want, ”said Steiner.

It is likely his team if the obvious signals are to be interpreted. Starting with an incredibly open look behind the scenes of the latest Netflix Drive to Survive season, which offered an insight into a chaotically managed team whose team boss – Steiner – only had one thing in mind: to save the team at all costs, because Gene was it doesn’t care.

But, even naked, was an amazing example of how not to manage in any organization or sports team, how not to deal with staff and just not to behave at this management level in any area of ​​life.

If Eddie Jordan was the F1 village idiot all those years ago when he was anointed by Ron Dennis, then one could argue that Steiner is the modern-day version.

As you can imagine, the Haas F1 adventure became Steiner’s team when Gene Haas realized he would never win a Grand Prix no matter what.

After a solid start in the top division in 2016 and 2017, which quickly solidified Haas in midfield, 2018 was the highlight, as the fifth in the championship testifies, but after that it went steeply downhill to the end of the grid, where they are intended for the foreseeable future.

It was around this time that Gene got the news that whatever happened, if he won, as he did at NASCAR, it was never on the table. Many wonder why he thought differently before taking the plunge.

A little diligence in the paddock back then and he would have known it was a futile pursuit.

That it took him three years to realize was because Steiner had the store in pretty decent shape, but when the money ran out, as we learned from Netflix. It became desperate when Gene was reportedly on the verge of closing the store if Nikita Mazepin’s billionaire father didn’t appear on stage with bags of rubles. Pay for his son calling himself a Formula 1 driver.

With this and the Ferrari fee for arranging Mick at Haas, Steiner had saved the team, but only in the way that the car has been undeveloped for years; You have two rookies who pay, so don’t worry – if one leaves, another will take his place as there are many billionaires out there who want to live the dream at any cost. Lawrence Stroll and Dmitry Mazepin are not alone.

The promotion of this Ralf against Günther-Rufe match will probably only influence the Haas team in the wrong direction, where you can hardly see how Gene endures more pain from the Steiner “Shitshow” and leaves it to the team boss to do it to whip the highest bidder.

Until that happens, this war of words will likely only escalate because unfortunately (awful, actually) nobody would bet that Mick or Nikita would not have more incidents and accidents while trying to make an impression with a car; one that too often took the veterans who tried to drive it by surprise. Ask Kevin and Romain.