IndyCar driver Romain Grosjean on Wednesday lamented the somewhat surprising departure of one of his former mentors in Formula 1, Guenther Steiner.
With just six weeks before the start of the 2024 F1 season, Steiner, who had served as team principal since the debut of the Haas F1 team in 2016, and team owner Gene Haas reportedly came to a mutual decision to part ways after the team finished last in 2023 and had finished in the bottom three ranked teams in each of the past six seasons.
Steiner, who also brought a great deal of attention and publicity to the Haas team through his role as one of the featured characters in the Netflix “Drive To Survive” series, will be replaced by Ayao Komatsu, who worked with Grosjean throughout his 9 1/2-season F1 career.
“Yeah, I saw the news as most of us,” Grosjean said during the first of two IndyCar Media Days on Wednesday. “I’m very happy for Komatsu. First of all, he’s a very good friend of mine. I competed at every of my 181 Cup and Formula 1 (races) with him working on my car somehow. His kids are the same age as my kids, so we’ve been very good friends, and I’m excited for him. It’s a huge challenge in front of him, so I’m excited for him.
“I don’t know what happened (with Steiner’s departure from the Haas camp). I don’t know more details than you do, but I wish Guenther all the best in his next chapter. He’s definitely a man that’s got a lot of ideas and things to do, but for me the main thing is (I’m) very happy for Ayao.”
Follow Autoweek contributor Jerry Bonkowski on X/Twitter @JerryBonkowski.
Read the full article here