Guenther Steiner urges drivers to self-motivate to help Haas out of "coma"

Haas

Steiner urges drivers to self-motivate to help Haas out of "coma"

Grosjean and Magnussen will leave at end of the season

Ewan Gale

Sunday 25 October 2020 10:45

Haas team principal Gunther Steiner has insisted departing drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen must motivate themselves for the remainder of the season to help the team pull itself out of a "coma".

The duo confirmed they had been axed via their social media channels this week, bringing to an end a collective nine years at the team.

This season has been another traumatic one for Haas which has collected just two points finishes this season, with only Williams behind them in the constructors' championship.

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With six races remaining, including the inaugural race at Portimão, Steiner believes the drivers will push not only for the team but also their own careers.

"How do you motivate them? I think it is in their best interests they motivate themselves because they want to have a future," said Steiner.

"In my opinion things like this, they happen in life. What, are they anticipating to stay for the rest of their lives until they are 80? I don't think so, so I think these things happen in professional life, not just sport.

"For sure the motivation at the moment is not as high as if they had a car that they could go on the podium, I fully understand that one.

"But still, we have a competition now of 'How can I beat my team-mate?' because you want a better resumé than the team-mate. That is how I see it but I see things differently. In my opinion, that is the factor.

"We are in a little bit of a coma at the moment but we will get out of it like a lot of other people get out of these comas. It is not how you go down, it is how you come back up again."

In its history, Haas has only employed three drivers, with Grosjean spending the entirety of the team's five-year existence there and Magnussen joining a year later.

Steiner has at least credited the pair with promoting the team to where it is now and giving it a platform for the future.

"Romain was here in the beginning and for sure, we went through highs and lows and maybe more than we wanted to," assessed Steiner.

"You can never go through many highs. We had a few lows but that is normal. We are still a young team, you forget that. It looks like we have been here forever but we haven't and Romain was here from day one.

"They are a big part of getting us where we are now, both of them."

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