Former Haas boss Guenther Steiner has revealed the bizarre experience of being let go by the American-owned team.
Team principals in the bottom half of the grid are often even more at risk of being replaced for continued underperformance than their drivers, and that was – unfortunately – the case for Steiner.
If a team underperforms the responsibility usually falls on the shoulders of their leader, with various bosses axed if they fail to deliver results.
Alpine have hired and fired a wave of team principals in the past few years, with Otmar Szafnauer sacked in favour of Bruno Famin in 2023, who was recently fired and replaced by Oliver Oakes.
Guenther Steiner reveals bizarre circumstances of Haas sacking
Gene Haas, owner of Haas F1 team, shocked the world by sacking Steiner from his role of team principal earlier this year, where he was replaced by Ayao Komatsu.
Steiner has emerged as a popular figure with F1 fans after appearing in Netflix’s docu-series, Drive to Survive, where his foul-mouthed rants transformed him into a social media icon.
However, Haas’ failure to improve on-track led to his sacking, and the Italian has since enjoyed a prominent role in the media, including a recent appearance on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, where he revealed the bizarre circumstances in which he was sacked.
Guenther Steiner reveals bizarre location he was sacked in
“In a supermarket. In my home town in Northern Italy,” Steiner said.
“Honestly, I was looking at what to buy for the evening and then I got the phone call but you know now every time I go into that one I remember that call but I don’t remember being upset about it. For me, at the time, he was like ‘I don’t want to extend your contract' and I was ‘yeah, fine with me’.
“That was it, and I went by and bought some ham you know. And then went home. I tried to pick which ham, and Gene [Haas] helped with which ham.”
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