How Steiner’s exit underlines the changed role of F1’s team bosses

It’s the morning after the shock announcement of Gene Haas’s appointment of Ayao Komatsu as team principal of Haas F1 when my phone pings with a message from Guenther Steiner. I’m in Australia and enjoying my first coffee, but it’s the previous day for him thanks to the time difference.

At this point I should declare an interest, since my company works with Guenther and we enjoy a good relationship. Once he realises that’s it’s not late at night for me, we jump on a call.

He is, as always, positive, bullish and pragmatic. It’s Gene’s team and he can call the shots. After a decade of bringing Haas F1 into the world and leading it through times both good and bad, Guenther’s experience of working in motorsport for three and half decades has prepared him well. Change happens. Frankly, shit happens.

The one thing which genuinely surprises Guenther is the reaction to him being replaced. The calls and messages he’s had, and also the people he’s heard from. The outpouring of near-grief from many fans and the media hysteria surrounding this departure.

His surprise escalates further when he
fulfils his commitment to opening the Autosport International Show in Birmingham two days later. Some fans are in tears.

Appearing on stage, where he is interviewed by Sky Sports F1’s David Croft, the questions have changed. Rather than talking about Haas’s hopes for the new season, he has to explain why he, one of Formula 1’s
best known team principals and a star of Netflix’s Drive To Survive,
is no longer employed.

Haas will enter the new season without Steiner at the helm for the first time since its inception

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

I’ve previously written about the dawn of the hired-in team principal, the pitfalls which come with taking on what used to be the top job in a team. Gone are the days when the team principal owned the business. Only Toto Wolff can renew his own contract.

PLUS: The key factors behind F1’s Premier League-style managerial revolving door

Team principals are answerable to the owners. The successors to eponymous team owners such as Enzo Ferrari, Ron Dennis, Frank Williams and Eddie Jordan are John Elkann, His Excellency Shaikh Mohamed bin Isa Al Khalifa, Matthew Savage and Lawrence Stroll.

As changes in ownership have swept through F1, so too the role of team principal has evolved, together with the background of those appointed. Eight of the 10 team principals are now engineers, yet the two teams which have dominated the sport for a decade and a half are led by businessmen: Toto Wolff and Christian Horner.

What this says is that a new generation of team owners see the team principal’s role as primarily technical in that their job is to
lead a team of engineers and technicians to design, develop and race a Formula 1 car.

While the team boss focuses on the racing, others take care of, oversee or sometimes dictate negotiations with F1 and Liberty Media, politicking with the FIA, searching for sponsors, handling media and targeting drivers

The wider responsibilities previously shouldered by owner-bosses are now shared across broader, more complex organisational structures. These often separate out the team principal title from that of the chief executive, chief commercial officer
and chairman.

While the team boss focuses on the racing, others take care of, oversee or sometimes dictate negotiations with F1 and Liberty Media, politicking with the FIA, searching for sponsors, handling media and targeting drivers.

Guenther Steiner has his fans and, as with anyone in a high-profile role, his critics too. Yet the diverse requirements for team principals to be inspirational leaders, commercial titans, technical geniuses and media stars have never been more conflicted.

Will we see more team principal changes? No question about it. After all, it is the
Drive to Survive.

Steiner was in the IMSA paddock at Daytona as he seeks out his next motorsport opportunity

Photo by: Andreas Beil