“Exactly: you’re stuck,” says Steiner. “And these people have to make money, why else would they do it? But it’s also about having a vision of how we can make this happen. And I’m not saying that buying the Ferrari suspension is wrong. But at least there has to be a trend to do things better.
“To attract more sponsors, you also have to give them more, because everyone cares about what they give to sponsors.
“You have to have a story that ties in with the other nine teams, because I wouldn’t think the other nine teams are all stupid. If you are outnumbered nine to one, the nine are normally right.”
The Haas story
So how does Steiner view the decade that has passed since the team debuted? “They were ten good years,” he admits.
“You have good days and bad days, but overall I think if you can do something like that in your life, it’s pretty cool. To set up an F1 team as your idea and then make it happen… Even if you don’t ultimately own it, it’s impossible to do the impossible, have the idea, get along to be able to do it and create it. (Haas is) still the youngest team, and it just started with a piece of paper. So we have no regrets about that.”
No one can deny that the team achieved sixth place on its debut. “That’s obvious,” says Steiner when asked to recall the highlights.
“All the people were saying this couldn’t happen with the way it was structured – and it did. We were in the right place at the right time for the first test. We came to the first race at the right time at the right place. And we went there without any problems and scored points.
“That proves that you can do something, and from that moment on you obviously have the daily problems. I’d say it was pretty good sailing, but then Covid hit and everything got harder.
What comes next?
A new job as team boss in F1 seems unlikely, and even if he were offered one, he would be a hired hand and never have the autonomy he had in his role at Haas.