According to Autosport, former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner is allegedly not permitted to rejoin Formula 1.
After guiding the American group for ten years, it was revealed last week that Steiner had left; owner Gene Haas had decided not to renew his contract.
While it was true that Steiner’s contract expired at the end of 2023, several reports said he had been fired
During a presentation at Autosport International last weekend, he disclosed several details about his leaving on his own.
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In a phone conversation that came “out of the blue” between Christmas and New Year’s, Steiner disclosed, the owner of the team told him he wasn’t getting a new contract.
Haas has already announced that trackside engineering director Ayao Komatsu, who has never managed an F1 team, will take Steiner’s place.
Since the Italian is allegedly “under an anti-competition signing arrangement,” Autosport has reported, it is unclear when we will see Steiner in the F1 paddock again.
Although neither Steiner nor Haas have acknowledged whether or not such a system is in place at the moment, the theory gained traction when he said he wouldn’t be able to accept a job offer from the paddock if it were made to him to begin “this week.”
“Steiner is believed to be under an anti-competition signing arrangement, which can be temporarily put in place, even though he is not on gardening leave following his Haas exit given his contract was not renewed rather than terminated,” according to an Autosport story.
“This is not the same as the non-working circumstances that F1 team employees may encounter if they have decided to sign with a different team before departing from their current squad.
This is the reason Steiner said, “No,” in response to the question of whether he could accept an offer from Christian Horner to return to Red Bull in the event that it were made in a hypothetical scenario this week.
The parties have not verified the anti-competition clause.
It’s really unclear what Steiner will do next, but he has no intention of jumping into anything because he’s feeling “chilled” about the circumstances as they stand.
