Pictures: The highs and lows of Haas’ eight years under Guenther Steiner

The 2024 Formula 1 season will be the first time the Haas team has been led by anyone other than Guenther Steiner.

During its first eight years F1’s newest team has pulled off shock results and endured seasons of deep disappointment; it has clashed with sponsors and seen one of its drivers climb out of an inferno.

Without Steiner at the helm, Haas will feel like a very different team.

2016

Haas could hardly have hoped for a better start to life in Formula 1. Romain Grosjean took sixth place on their debut in Australia.

Team owner Gene Haas was present to join the celebrations.

Incredibly, Grosjean went one better at the next race, taking fifth in Bahrain.

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They couldn’t sustain that form over the whole season. Grosjean scored their final point of the year in Austin – team mate Esteban Gutierrez never troubling the scorers – which secured eighth in the championship for the new team.

2017

Kevin Magnussen replaced Gutierrez for 2017 and scored on his second start for them in Shanghai.

Grosjean couldn’t repeat their 2016 high of fifth place, but came in sixth in Austria, a track where the team has tended to go well.

Captain Steiner could be pleased with their efforts in their second season as they repeated their eighth place finish in the standings.

2018

Haas’ third season started ominously – both drivers retired within moments of each other due to problems with their wheel nuts during pit stops.

Fifth place for Magnussen at the next race in Bahrain swiftly erased those memories. It proved the beginning of their best season to date.

The Spanish Grand Prix was a bittersweet affair. Magnussen took sixth but Grosjean’s car returned to the pits on a flatbed truck after he caused a first-lap pile-up.

Grosjean redeemed himself in Austria, leading Haas’ best result to date: fourth and fifth places.

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Grosjean and Steiner had more to smile about during 2018 as the team moved into the top half of the championship table.

More points at the season finale meant Haas ended the year with 93 points and fifth in the constructors championship.

2019

The team had a new look for 2019 after attracting sponsorship from an energy drink brand. But the deal – and their season – soon turned sour.

Sixth place for Magnussen in the season opener proved a false dawn. The team was frequently mystified by how their car treated its tyres over a race distance, and points proved hard to come by.

Silverstone was the low point. While Steiner fielded questions over critical comments made by their title sponsor, Grosjean and Magnussen collided during the race, prompted a furious dressing-down by their team principal which became notorious when it appeared in Netflix’s Drive to Survive series.

Steiner’s blunt telephone exchanges with Gene Haas, captured in Drive to Survive, made him one of the paddock’s most popular figures.

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The team’s new sponsorship deal was cancelled before the season was over.

2020

The disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic hit Haas especially hard. At the heavily delayed season opener both cars retired with brake problems.

Magnussen scored one of the team’s three points in Hungary – but lost one point due to a penalty for an illegal radio message.

As bad as the season was, the team had reason to feel fortunate when Grosjean survived an appalling first-lap crash in Bahrain, his car exploding in flames.

He suffered burns to his hands, but the strength of Grosjean’s car and the quick works of the marshals and medical team spared him a much worse fate.

Pietro Fittipaldi substituted for Grosjean in the final two races, but the team was well off the pace and only finished three points above last place in the standings.

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2021

Another new title sponsor arrived for 2021: Uralkali, run by the father of new driver Nikita Mazepin. Haas replaced both drivers as it courted vital funds from sponsors. Formula 2 champion Mick Schumacher also joined but both drivers understood little development had gone into the latest car and it would be a learning year for both of them.

When Mazepin crashed out three corners into the first race it did not bode well for the season ahead.

Schumacher also struggled in the uncompetitive VF-21. For the first time Haas ended a season without a point, and fell to last in the championship. However they had made an early start on their car for the 2022 season, when new technical regulations would arrive, and were hopeful their gamble would pay off.

2022

Haas intended to continue with the same driver line-up and sponsorship arrangement in 2022, and started testing in the same colour scheme.

But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted Haas to sever its ties with Uralkali and the Mazepins. Fortunately for them, Kevin Magnussen was available to return in his place, and repaid them with a superb fifth place in the Bahrain season-opener.

Schumacher’s first points took longer to come. He had heavy crashes in Jeddah and Monaco, and retired from a strong position in Canada with a technical problems.

A relieved Schumacher bagged his first points at Silverstone, but it wasn’t enough to keep his place in the team.

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By now Steiner was arguably a bigger star in his own right than his drivers.

At Interlagos, Magnussen took advantage of wet conditions to claim the team’s first pole position, though only for a sprint race. He was taken out on the first lap of the grand prix, but Haas went on to secure eighth in the championship.

2023

Nico Hulkenberg took Schumacher’s place for 2023 and delivered seventh place on his third start for the team. But their form took a downward turn, and that proved their best result of the season.

The VF-23 proved tough on its rear tyres. Its drivers, especially Hulkenberg, often qualified well but slipped down the order during the race.

The team brought a major upgrade to the car – plus a patriotic paintjob – to its home event in Austin. But it failed to solve the problems and Hulkenberg soon reverted to the old specification. They were unable to prevent AlphaTauri out-scoring them and fell to last in the championship, where they finished for the second time in three years.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was Steiner’s last in charge at Haas.

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