🏁 Guenther Out at Haas

PLP Season 2 Edition 2

48 Days Until the 2024 Season Opening Weekend

Just when we thought it was going to be a slow news week - sitting here patiently counting the days until team car launches next month - Papa Haas (Gene) dropped the hammer, showing team principal Guenther Steiner the door in a surprising move. The joke around the interwebs is that Drive to Survive is in shambles at the news. Probably somewhat accurate. There was a time as the 2023 season rolled to a close where the thought was we’d be struggling for news updates during the winter break, but so far this has not been the case at all. So, put a +1 in the happy column for the constant stream of winter break stories, as well as a +1 in the sad column for the release of everyone’s favorite Netflix racing reality star.

Quick Quiz: New this week! Select the answer below and we’ll reveal the results next Friday.

Answer revealed at the bottom ⬇

Guenther Steiner Relieved of Duties at Haas

In an shock announcement on Wednesday, Haas announced that team principal and Drive to Survive darling Guenther Steiner was out as team principal. The eccentric and lively team boss had become the true symbol of team, showcasing his charismatic and outspoken personality on Netflix’s hit series. At the helm since the Haas’ first season in F1 in 2016, his impact on getting the team off the ground (not to mention contributing to rising interest in the sport) cannot be overlooked.

While it’s hard to imagine Haas without Guenther, and the move is indeed a surprise, if you look simply at performance… you can see a path to Gene Haas making this decision. Disagreements on the level of investment needed between the now former team principal and owner were at the heart of the decision, with Steiner urging for increased investment and Haas believing that the team had simply underachieved, and did not need more resources or better facilities.

But Gene doesn’t put all the blame on Steiner, saying “It came down to performance. Here we are in our eighth year… we have never had a podium… I’m not sitting here saying it’s Guenther’s fault… but it seems like this was an appropriate time to make a change and try a different direction. I like Guenther…We had a tough end to the year. I don’t understand that… Those are good questions to ask Guenther, what went wrong… I have no interest in being 10th anymore.”

Haas team drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen thanked Guenther for his time as their leader. They both posted on Instagram with Hulk saying, “Thanks Guenther. For your trust, friendship and the opportunity to go racing in F1 again. You’re definitely a character”, and K-Mag saying, “Thanks Guenther… It has been both fun and tremendously challenging - but never boring. So long and all the best.”

Steiner will be replaced by Ayao Komatsu, a long tenured Haas team member who started out as Chief Race Engineer and most recently served as Director of Engineering. While Guenther had the people management down, it looks like Haas is going full technical for their next principal. (Not to say that Guenther isn’t technical, or Ayao isn’t a people person… but those both seem like clear strengths). The one question left on everyone’s mind… will Ayao curse as much as Guenther?

6 out of 10 Launch Dates Confirmed

Mark your calendars. Something to look forward to even before testing on Feb 21st and DTS on Feb 23rd. While we’re still waiting on a few teams to announce the date of their announcement (scheduling a meeting to talk about a future meeting, if your in the corporate world) we’ll kick off on Feb 5th with a double header from Williams and Stake-F1-Team-Kick-Sauber-Formerly-Alpha-Romeo.

What can you expect from a car launch event? Here’s highlights from Red Bull’s last year for an idea. You’ll actually see the car of course, which is cool, but boy does it take a trained eye to pick out differences on these machines - especially when not up close and side by side. We’ll do some of this once teams start launching. Other than that, there might be moderate pyrotechnics, some hip music, a guy in a suit will talk, and the drivers will all be filled with hope at the prospects of a fresh season full of potential glory in their brand new whip. Love to see it.

Aston Martin: Year in Review

Ask any member of Aston Martin how they’d feel about a P5 Constructor’s finish this time last year and they’d probably say something like, “It’s a good step in the right direction”. Ask again a few races into 2023 and they’d probably say something like, “What happened?!”. They shot out of a canon to start last year’s campaign, with Alonso podiums becoming as predictable as Haas’ race pace (Sorry Guenther. I actually wrote this analogy before the news broke as a place holder, but seems now like it should stay. It wasn’t your fault buddy… you did what you could. Anyway…). Excitement built as Alonso himself became no longer content with podiums, but acknowledged that he had his sights on victories. Lance shook off a pre-season injury and looked decent himself, albeit not nearly on the 2-time champ’s level.

P2 in the Constructors’ looked like a shoe-in until… it didn’t. After 7 podiums in the first 8 races, Alonso would only capture 2 more the rest of the season. Lance would capture just 3 points between race 10 in Great Britain and race 19 in Qatar, the latter being the low point of his season with a heated confrontation with one of his mechanics. Even Alonso showed frustration during what became a mid-season mega slump for the team, marked by their inability to maintain their early season edge via car development - being out-upgraded by the likes of McLaren, most notably. The good news was an end of season return to stronger form, with the electric Alonso P3 in Brazil and 21 points for Lance in the final 3 races including a great drive in Vegas. With such a promising start it’s hard not to feel disappointed with a P5 in the team standings, though Alonso has got to be happy with a personal P4.

While Aston entered the season with the second best car, it became quite obvious they couldn’t quite challenge the big boys in the Constructors’ simply due to driver edge. While Lance is no slouch, and despite all the setbacks this year still finished a serviceable P10 in the Driver’s championship, he’s just not going to be fighting for podiums consistently like his teammate. Which isn’t a knock, because not many can go toe-to-toe with Fernando Alonso. He’s still in the sport at 42 years old for a reason, and the race and qualifying results paint the picture clearly. As long as Lawrence Stroll owns the team we can expect to see Lance, who to his credit did bounce back nicely at the end of the year. One can only dream about what an Alonso/Vettel pairing might have looked like in that car though…

• Highs: Alonso’s blistering start, epic P3 battle in Brazil, Lance’s finish

• Lows: Mid-season slump, wrong development path, Lance’s Qatar blow-up

• “It feels a bit unexpected and I would not have put any money on myself finishing fourth this season, so it is like a gift to finish ahead of the Ferraris and Lando Norris! Together with 2012, I consider this to be my best season ever and better than 2005 and 2006 for sure.” - ALO

• “It’s been a season with… I don’t like using the words bad luck, but I think missed opportunities. But I guess it’s bad luck when I think about the failures and stuff.” - STR

Down the Grid

Tech Talk

• Mercedes updates to the W15 include no aerodynamic design link to the W14, a further back cockpit position, a smaller gearbox, more compact rear body work, pull-rod suspension, and additional visual changes including a new chassis, front/rear suspension, and new sidepods.

• Mercedes set to debut new LiDAR tech on the safety car

• Strategy adjusted race pace between teammates from @FormulaPace on X 🔽 Slightly surprised to see Danny with the edge on Yuki here, after the latter was lauded for his performance against all three of his teammates this season. While he did have a good year, this data point is certainly a positive sign for our favorite Aussie.

Off the Grid

• Monza begins track improvements to ensure F1 future. With a contract expiring in 2025, work has begun on a complete resurfacing, construction of a new underpass, and improved pit building, and grandstand improvements. Hard to imagine this legendary track would even be in jeopardy, and I guarantee they will do what they need to do to ensure it stays. However there have been complaints about crowd management and the facilities in recent years, so these upgrades were certainly necessary to keep up with the times.

• The evolution of pit stops. [Video] Spoiler Alert: They’ve gotten faster.

• Forget the new 2026 regulations, if you had to choose the new car requirements would it be A) Chocolate F1 car, or B) Snow F1 car?

That’s it for this week… we’ll be back next Friday, most likely with less fireworks (but who knows for sure?). With Drive to Survive in shambles, someone on the internet (I forget where I saw it, sorry anonymous person) suggested these two should get there own spinoff where they cruise around Italy, drinking cappuccino, and talking trash 🔽

Questions? Comments? Did we get something wrong (never 😁)? Let us know ▶ [email protected]