Steiner: Not a criticism of Ralf but I do things my way

A war of words has erupted between Haas boss and Ralf Schumacher - after a 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix weekend in which the latter's nephew - Mick Schumacher - crashed heavily.

After the incident, Steiner told reporters that the multiple crashes endured by the 23-year old, son of F1 legend Michael Schumacher, was costing the team and needed to be reigned in.

At this Ralf, a six-time Grand Prix winner took offence and accused Steiner of "airing dirty laundry" at an inappropriate time, questioning what the Austrian actually did in his role at Haas. Shots fired!

To which Steiner rebounded with his own salvo: “I don't want to add anything to that. I do things the way I do them. I don't think it has gone bad so far. Let it be clear that this is not a criticism of Ralf, but I do things the way I like them.

"I didn't talk bad about Mick either. I just said it was getting too much. I haven't read what the media has made of it, but we've had a lot of crashes lately. That's unnecessary and it doesn't help anyone. That's all I said. But again: I run my team the way I want," said Steiner.

It probably is his team if the obvious signals are to be interpreted. Starting with an incredibly candid look behind the scenes in the latest Netflix Drive to Survive season as it provided a window into a chaotically run team whose team principal - Steiner - had only one thing on his mind: save the team at all costs because Gene was not interested.

But, also laid out bare, was a startling example of how not to manage in any organisation or sports team, how not to handle staff and simply no way to behave at that level of management, in any walk of life.

If Eddie Jordan was the F1 Village Idiot when anointed by Ron Dennis, all those years ago, then one could argue Steiner is the modern-day version.

One imagines, the Haas F1 adventure became Steiner's team when Gene Haas realised he was never going to win a Grand Prix no matter what.

After a solid start in the top flight back in 2016 and 2017, consolidating Haas firmly in the midfield ain a short time, 2018 was the highlight as fifth in the championship testifies but thereafter it was a sharp downhill curve to the back of the grid where they are destined to be for the foreseeable future.

It was around then that, Gene got the message that whatever happened winning, as he has done in NASCAR, was never on the table. Making many wonder why he thought any differently before he made the plunge.

A little due diligence in the paddock, at the time, and he would have known it was a futile pursuit.

That it took three years for him to realise is because Steiner had the place in fairly decent shape but when the money dried up as we were made aware by Netflix. It became desperate with Gene reportedly on the brink of shutting shop had Nikita Mazepin's billionaire father not appear on the scene with bags of roubles. Paying to have his son call himself a Formula 1 driver.

With that and the Ferrari fee for placing Mick with Haas, Steiner had saved the team but only just as the car is undeveloped for years; they have two rookies who pay so no worries there - if one goes another will fill his place as there are plenty of billionaires out there wanting to live the dream at any price. Lawrence Stroll and Dmitry Mazepin are not alone.

Publicity from this Ralf vs Guenther shouting match is only likely to impact the Haas team the wrong way where one can hardly see Gene countenancing more pain from the Steiner run "shitshow" and will leave it to the team principal to flog it onto the highest bidder.

Until that happens, this war of words is only likely to escalate because sadly (horrifically actually) no one would bet that Mick or Nikita will not suffer more incidents and crashes as they struggle to make an impression with a car; one that too often stumped the veterans who tried to drive them previously. Ask Kevin and Romain.