Guenther Steiner says he was impressed by the way the mechanics and engineers within his Uralkali Haas F1 Team kept going during the 2021 Formula 1 season despite the lack of success that was always on the cards with the poor VF-21.
The VF-21 was lacking in performance right from its track debut, and Haas opted to focus on the development of the 2022 car instead. Neither Mick Schumacher nor Nikita Mazepin had any realistic shot at the points all season long, with the formers twelfth place in the Hungarian Grand Prix the best result of the year.
However, Steiner, the Team Principal at Haas, was delighted that the team never stopped fighting throughout the year, even if it was obvious early on that they were destined to finish at the bottom of the Constructors’ Championship standings.
“I’m quite impressed how the guys kept on going,” Steiner is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “Look at the results, in the end there was never a giving up, we knew where we end up, but we always keep fighting. Even if you are a tenth behind, you try to make it half a tenth and that’s thanks to the guys.
“And they really kept on fighting because also there is, I would say, about 60% of the people which are here from the beginning of the team, so they know we can do it. And everybody wants to come back to go and get points again, fight in the midfield.
“I wouldn’t say it was easy, but I’ve got a group of people around me, close to me, who know what we are doing, keep always involved and everybody does his job to get their own people which work for them going. That is what you need to do.”
Steiner says there was never any point in telling the team it was going to be great as it was clear early on that they would not believe him with results being so poor, but he was happy with the never give up attitude of the team.
“[There] is no point to go out there every race weekend and tell them how great everything will be because they don’t believe you after a while, they are smart people, they just need to see what you do in the back counts,” said Steiner.
“And we never gave up, nobody in the team gave up ever. So that is the most important, and that keeps the team going. I don’t have to keep it going. It keeps it going with this attitude.”
