In the round-up: Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner admits he regrets not having the opportunity to thank all his colleagues before leaving the team
In brief
Steiner – Not getting to thank Haas team before departing “stung”
Guenther Steiner, who was team principal of the Haas F1 team for its first eight seasons before owner Gene Haas opted not to extend his contract for 2024, says he wishes he had the opportunity to thank all his former colleagues before leaving the team.
Speaking at the Autosport International show, Steiner admitted that it was unfortunate he was not able to speak with the whole team before departing.
“Yeah, it stung, but they all know me and they all know that I appreciate what they did,” he said. “It’s always best to say it to them, it would be nice to say, ‘hey guys, thanks for what you did for the team.’
“I would just like to thank all the team members, which I couldn’t give a proper goodbye to when I left, so I’ll do it this way. And I want to say also thank you to all the fans who supported us while I was there.”
Barnard dominates FRMEC opener
Taylor Barnard dominated the opening race of the Formula Regional Middle East Championship at the Yas Marina circuit, yesterday, leading from pole position to win by almost five seconds.Barnard, who finished runner-up in the FRMEC last season and won a single race in last year’s F3 championship, led home Ferrari academy driver Tuukka Taponen in Saturday’s opening round, with Martin Stenshorne completing the podium in third. Races two and three will take place today.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
F1 promotes Vegas exec Prazer to chief commercial role (Sports Business Journal)
'F1 has promoted F1 Las Vegas Chief Commercial Officer Emily Prazer to the same position for the global racing series, elevating the executive after the new event brought in a massive commercial haul for its inaugural race. Prazer will report to F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali. She will run commercial partnerships, marketing and hospitality for F1 while still be heavily involved in F1 Vegas and shaping efforts to continue the series’ growth in the U.S.'
2024 season launch location revealed (Williams)
'You know the date - February 5th. You know the city – New York City. But now it’s time to reveal the all-important location of our 2024 Season Launch. We are delighted to announce our 2024 Season Launch will be taking place at Puma’s NYC Flagship Store in Midtown Manhattan. This year marks the beginning of an exciting multi-year global partnership with the sportswear giant, and their base at 609 Fifth Avenue is the perfect place to kickstart the new campaign.'
Lighting Bolt electrifies in world record-breaking Formula E race car (FIA)
Usain Bolt: ''The GENBETA race car is like a rocket ship on wheels. Getting the chance to drive it was a mind-blowing experience. The power from the start was such a surprise and the adrenaline you got is on a different level, easily. Driving the GENBETA was like nothing I've experienced before. I was told that as soon as you drive, you don’t want to stop or get out and they were right. I would do it every day if I could. If I get more time, I will definitely go faster.''
Formula E ready to make more noise - because CEO learned from Richard Branson (Mirror)
Jeff Dodds: ''We are not going to take on Formula One in scale, we're not going to spend what they spend, so it's about how we use their scale to help us. How do we create very disruptive, creative ideas of our own to get more talkability and make more noise? If I learned anything from Richard, that was the one thing that really stuck with me.''
Red Bull's 1250bhp RB17 hypercar is on course for a 2024 reveal (Evo)
'The car will be predominantly built in-house by Red Bull’s Advanced Technology off-shoot, with only elements like the gear-sets, powertrain and glazing sourced externally. While not set up for mass production, RBAT has a production target of 15 units per year, with no more than 50 to be built in total. The RBAT team, which acts as a consulting firm for the team’s external projects, has been built up over the years to absorb some of the extra personnel no longer able to be employed by the F1 team due to budget cap regulations.'
Pre-season expectations: What each team will be aiming for in 2024 (F3)
'What reigning champions Prema will be most eager to achieve though is their first title sweep since Oscar Piastri celebrated the 2020 Drivers’ Championship alongside the team’s triumph that year. As is always the case in FIA F3, the level of competition continues to rise year after year and retaining the title is easier said than done, especially with compatriots Trident breathing down their necks.'
Update 4 overview (Forza Motorsport)
'Forza Motorsport Update 4 introduces the prestigious Daytona International Speedway – a truly iconic racetrack renowned for its marvels in engineering. Get ready for race weekend with four new Spotlight cars and four fresh Car Pass deliveries.'
Formula E round 1: Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez (Formula E via YouTube)
F4 UAE round 1: Yas Marina (F4 UAE via YouTube)
Formula Regional Middle East round 1: Yas Marina (Formula Regional Middle East via YouTube)
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Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
Gil de Ferran, forever in our hearts, his racing spirit pushing us forwards. 🧡 pic.twitter.com/wM2Fbf7UGw
— NEOM McLaren FE (@McLarenFE) January 12, 2024
A reminder to add your reminders for Feb 13th 😉 🔔 pic.twitter.com/gGUaGbcQTF
— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) January 13, 2024
Solid climbing session today. 🗻 pic.twitter.com/Z4ICubMQqC
— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) January 13, 2024
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Should the so-called ‘dragon move’ where drivers weave to break the tow in the Indy 500 be banned? Yes, believes Unicron…
The ‘dragon move’ scares the life out of me. The lead car swerving towards the inside track has full visibility of where the end of the pitlane wall is, but the cars behind can only see as far as the rear wings in front of them.
When – if – the lead car leaves it to the last second to swerve back across and onto the circuit proper, I’m always scared that the following cars won’t have enough time to react and will just plough head on into the end of the pit wall. So banning this move is very sensible in my view. Not doing so is just waiting for a massive accident to happen.
Unicron
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Nick, Koolkieren and Alexandre Araujo!
IMOLAFTW
14th January 2024, 6:09
Are these Google type firings pervasive across many US corporations?
anon
14th January 2024, 9:30
Unfortunately, this site has cut out the part of the quote from Steiner where he confirmed that he technically wasn’t fired from Haas. Steiner himself has now confirmed what was reported elsewhere, which is that Haas declined to extend his contract with them when it expired.
notagrumpyfan
14th January 2024, 10:23
What’s the difference? The fact that there is no severance pay? (Although there could be if that’s included in the contract).
‘Firing’ or ‘sacking’ is not a legal term, and it’s up to the reader to determine if this ‘termination of employment’ falls under that loose definition.
anon
14th January 2024, 11:39
notagrumpyfan, functionally, yes – dismissing an individual on the grounds of being incapable of meeting the performance requirements of their role, given Haas have implied that is the ground for replacing Steiner, involves a very different set of procedures to be followed compared to choosing not to renew a contract for employment and has different criteria that the employer needs to demonstrate to justify a dismissal.
notagrumpyfan
14th January 2024, 12:04
(You probably know) that’s not what I mean.
In both instances you don’t continue your employment because the employer wants to terminate it. Colloquially, we call that being ‘fired’ or ‘sacked’.
Employing somebody on short term contracts is much easier to terminate than a fixed contract.
But then again, that freedom (for the employer) is typically reflected in the annual cost.
Nick T.
15th January 2024, 14:48
And I assume you also agree with those who say that, without a signed and dated doc with notarization giving express consent, it’s sexual assault.
He got fired. Whatever the legal or technical term is for what happened to Steiner. I don’t have a contract with my maid, but if after five years of her working exclusively for me I told her I was going to have someone else clean my house, I’d call that a firing.
notagrumpyfan
14th January 2024, 10:28
PS it is a pity though that this site doesn’t include links to the top part of the round-up news snippets; especially as they make it the headline story.
F1fanatics used to be very diligent in always linking the original sources of all news items.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
14th January 2024, 9:37
Damn, not getting to say goodbye to the team member is bad timing, even if I don’t like steiner he did well to use the opportunity to do so when talking to the press.
Rick
14th January 2024, 12:17
Steiner knew he was gone before the new year. Not saying “good bye” is on him, no one else
Ludewig
14th January 2024, 10:34
The Sky Sports interviewer repeatedly tried to bait Guenther unto making negative comments about Gene. Shame on him and good to see how graceful Steiner handled it. He didn’t even drop a single f-bomb.
A M (@amam)
14th January 2024, 11:48
When will Keith be doing his usual end of season car and team performance assessments?
BasCB (@bascb)
15th January 2024, 8:33
Wait, Gil de Ferran died? Wow. RIP Gil and thanks for the racing.
Coventry Climax
15th January 2024, 19:13
Glad we live in different countries and we’re not in joint traffic, as you’d probably be asleep behind the wheel?
Sorry mate, but this was extensively reported on in the press and sites like this one.
osnola
15th January 2024, 19:36
Every driver knows the track and should know where the pitlane starts.
While swerving can be dangerous because people use the pitlane ( that part should be banned immediately)
Braking before a corner happens at the exact chosen point every lap. Every topdriver does know at which point on track he currently is. Some are even able to drive the track blindfolded or in heavy rain/spray without any usable line of sight.