Haas chef efter dramatisk udmelding

Onsdag aften fik Hass F1 teamet sig en overraskelse, da storsponsoren Rich Energy på deres Twitter profil udmeldte, at de grundet for ringe præstationer fra teamet, med øjeblikkelig virkning ville trække sig fra deres position. Teamchefen for Haas F1 Team Günther Steiner fortæller at Rich Energy forbliver storsponsor, til trods for den drastiske udmelding på energidrik producentens Twitter.

Torsdag morgen, nogle få timer senere, kom det frem at opslaget var skrevet af en nyligt fyret medarbejder, med det formål at ødelægge forholdet mellem sponsor og Haas F1 teamet. Indehaveren af Rich Energy har meldt ud, at der bliver taget på sagen internt i virksomheden, og der vil derfor ikke blive meldt meget mere ud til pressen.

Uden at kunne gå i dybe detaljer omkring episoden, afslørede Günther Steiner følgende: “They are still our sponsor, and I cannot go into the commercial agreement. I signed up for that, and I have nothing more to comment on that one. I hope that you guys get a better answer from us in the next days and weeks. We are working on that, leave it at that; I cannot say more.”

Da Günther blev spurgt om hvorledes denne situation ville påvirke teamets morale, svarede han: “It doesn’t affect them at all, because for us it is all the same. The sponsorship is still on so for sure; people are asking, but they get the same answer as you guys get. The sponsorship is still on, don’t worry about it.”

I opslaget, som du kan se her under, lagde Rich Energy dårlig præstation til grund for bruddet, og Günther Steiner indrømmer da også at resultaterne ikke er optimale. Haas F1 Team har op til denne weekend scoret sølle 16 point, og ligger i øjeblikket til en 9’ende plads i konstruktørernes mesterskab. Det er teamets ringeste score, siden de meldte deres ankomst i 2016.

Today @rich_energy terminated our contract with @HaasF1Team for poor performance. We aim to beat @redbullracing & being behind @WilliamsRacing in Austria is unacceptable. The politics and PC attitude in @F1 is also inhibiting our business. We wish the team well #F1 #richenergy pic.twitter.com/9mAt2dOnYu

— Rich Energy (@rich_energy) 10. juli 2019

Haas er ofte godt kørende i kvalifikationerne, og især Kevin Magnussen kan man som dansker kun være stolt af, men når det kommer til løbene er det en anden historie. Günther Steiner fortæller at teamet har problemer med at få dækkene til at fungere optimalt, men nægter samtidig at skyde hele skylden på Pirelli-gummiet, da der tilsyneladende også er dybere problemer med bilen, som de ikke kan få ”Haas” på – blandt andet aerodynamikken.

“It’s one of the theories we’ve got as well, but I wouldn’t blame the aero regulations because a lot of other people have got it figured out. That doesn’t help as well, but it could be that our car in traffic is not as good as the other ones and we overheat the rear tires. With these tires, because they need to be in a certain window, they are not in the window anymore.”

“We can qualify and just seem to suffer more with the narrow window of the tire. We cannot always stay in it, and this should not be a go at the tire. The tire will not change, it was decided. We need to find solutions for it and I hope we will. We are working hard on it.”

“We are not happy with our performance, no one is, but we have to go through this patch and just try to get the car to work in the race. In qualifying, we are pretty good most of the time. We’ve had a few ones which aren’t good, but these are in a minority to the good ones.”

“In the race, and for sure the points are made in the race and not in qualifying; unfortunately, that is where we are with performance.”

Günther Steiner holder sine forventninger til weekendens løb på Silverstone tæt på kroppen, og hvad der traditionelt har været en af de vanskeligere weekender i løbskalenderen for Hass F1 Team, handler for nuværende om at få en bedre forståelse af bilen, og hvor på bilen de kan optimerer.

“I wouldn’t give you a number where we want to finish. I think, I hope we get more understanding. As soon as we get understanding of what we need to do, we will be back. That is my opinion of where we are now.”

“Our car is not bad. A car which qualifies fifth cannot be bad. We just need to get the car working at all times. We need to have the car which can qualify fifth for a full race distance, and then we are fine.”