Guenther Steiner on the reasons for Schumacher's Haas exit



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Guenther Steiner on the reasons for Schumacher's Haas exit

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner explained why Michael Schumacher left the team. Steiner is satisfied with the progress of Schumacher and what he showed, but they needed an experienced driver who can make a difference.

"He improved a lot last year," Steiner told Auto Motor und Sport. "He had some moments that were very good. I have to say, we were all pleasantly surprised by what he brought. But in the overall package, just to help the team, we decided to bring in an experienced driver again, like we had back in 2018.

When we got into Formula 1, in the first year we had Romain [Grosjean] and Esteban [Gutierrez] and we had something similar [with one experienced driver only]. Esteban wasn’t bad, only we said that we needed someone with a bit more experience."
Nico Hulkenberg will be the new driver of his team.

The experience was the key factor in that decision. “Because of that, we now have two and now we have even more experience because Kevin [Magnussen] has now driven in Formula 1 for seven years and with Nico [Hulkenberg], he has been in Formula 1 for a long time and always in the position where we actually wanted to be."

Steiner on his decision

Of course, the reporters were again interested in what was the main motivation for the decision that it was time for a new driver.

“It’s always the question that very much, I wouldn’t say is difficult to answer, only to answer correctly. [Whether he was] better or worse [in 2022] doesn’t really matter much here. What we wanted to achieve is to improve the team.

I think we still have potential to improve as a team, and what is the best way to advance a team? With experience. You know what they can do and who can move the team forward. Unfortunately, Mick was only in his second season and there are people who have been there before.

They have already spent seven, eight, 10 years in Formula 1 and they simply know more and they can move the team forward. That’s why we decided to do it."