Former F1 boss Guenther Steiner reveals BIZARRE sacking

Otmar Szafnauer, Guenther Steiner, Fred Vasseur — Photo: © IMAGO

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Former F1 boss reveals BIZARRE sacking

A former team boss has unveiled the strange circumstances around their sacking

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Thursday 10 October 2024 13:57

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A former Formula 1 team principal has revealed the bizarre circumstances that surrounded his sacking from the sport.

Whilst it is the drivers that receive all of the mainstream glory in F1, team principals are often an emblem of their outfit’s successes and its failures.

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If a team underperforms the responsibility usually falls on the shoulders of their leader, with various bosses axed if they fail to deliver results.

Alpine, for example, have hired and fired a wave of team principals in the past few years, with Otmar Szafnauer sacked in favour of Bruno Famin in 2023, who was recently fired and replaced by Oliver Oakes.

Guenther Steiner was the former team principal at Haas

Guenther Steiner reveals bizarre circumstances of Haas sacking

Gene Haas, owner of Haas F1 team, shocked the world by deciding not to renew Guenther Steiner contract earlier this year, with Steiner eventually replaced by Ayao Komatsu.

Steiner has emerged as a popular figure with F1 fans after appearing in Netflix’s docu-series, Drive to Survive, where his foul-mouthed rants transformed him into a social media icon. However, Haas’ failure to improve their performances on track led to his exit from F1.

Since departing, the Italian has enjoyed a prominent role in the media, including a recent appearance on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, where he revealed the bizarre circumstances in which he found out the news he had essentially been sacked.

Guenther Steiner reveals bizarre location he was sacked in

“In a supermarket. In my home town in Northern Italy,” Steiner explained when asked where he was when he was given the news.

“Honestly, I was looking at what to buy for the evening and then I got the phone call but you know now every time I go into that one [supermarket] I remember that call, but I don’t remember being upset about it.

"For me, at the time, he was like ‘I don’t want to extend your contract' and I was ‘Yeah, fine with me’.

“That was it, and I went by and bought some ham you know."

Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Formula 1 Alpine Otmar Szafnauer Bruno Famin