Guenther Steiner (ITA) Haas F1 Team Prinicipal on the grid. 30.07.2023. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 13, Belgian Grand Prix, Spa Francorchamps, Belgium, Race Day.
Haas team boss Guenther Steiner has explained why it couldn’t afford to alter its current way of operating even if he wanted to house everybody under one building.
The American-licensed outfit operates in a vastly different way from its F1 counterparts, with the team’s efforts spread across offices in three separate countries.
While Haas’ main headquarters is officially listed as being in North Carolina in the United States, F1’s newest entry also has a base in Banbury in England and a design hub built into Ferrari’s Maranello factory.
Haas has endured a problematic campaign with persistent tyre degradation woes leaving it eighth in the Constructors’ standings with only 11 points.
When asked by Speedcafe if Haas’ current way of working is a hindrance to the team’s on-track performance, Steiner responded: “It does. You cannot deny that.
“At the moment, it’s just our business model doesn’t do well with having it in one place because of the collaboration [with Ferrari and Dallara] and also with the race team in the UK.
“So what you try to do to manage it as best as possible.”
Aside from partially working out of Maranello, Haas has continuously shared a collaboration with Ferrari that extends beyond being solely a power unit customer.
Despite complaints in the past from teams such as McLaren, Haas has always insisted upon buying as many parts externally as permitted by the regulations.
Steiner says that he doesn’t “have a choice in the moment” but admits a solution to the conundrum is one that is not forthcoming.
“If you would like to do something different, you need to come up with a good way how to do it,” he noted.
“But in the moment, there is no good way how to unify the team like this.
“The only thing would be to take the race team to Italy.
“That is much easier than to take the design team to the UK, but that is also not possible because we have got 100 people working there and I will need to replace at least half of them, maybe more, because more than half of them wouldn’t come to Italy.
“For the short and mid-term, we are fine like we are,” he added.
Nico Hulkenberg (GER) Haas VF-23 leads team mate Kevin Magnussen (DEN) Haas VF-23. 16.06.2023. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 9, Canadian Grand Prix, Montreal, Canada, Practice Day.
However, Steiner concedes that Haas’ deployment of staff across various countries means the team is lacking “social communication” within its ranks.
“If you look at, after COVID, a lot of people work from home,” the Italian, 58, explained.
“I’m pretty big in saying people need to go back to the office.
“The normal things; you don’t communicate anything. It then gets very sterile.
“This communication happens as well when you don’t think you have that communication; when you see somebody in the corridor, or when you have a coffee somewhere.
“When people meet outside of work, you don’t talk about work.
“And also knowing how the family of your colleague is doing gives you information which you don’t need to know what they’re doing, but if somebody is in a bad place, you leave them alone; if you don’t know, you just keep on asking questions.
“It’s social communication which you don’t have which is a little bit frustrating sometimes.”
Keyword: Steiner: Haas can’t change F1 logistical model