Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner recently spoke on McLaren’s decision of signing young Oscar Piastri.
Haas sacked young Mick Schumacher only after two seasons to make way for Nico Hulkenberg. Although the young German did impress this year, it was not enough for him to secure his seat with the American team. Steiner has earlier also indicated that the side is now not that much interested in young drivers anymore.
This is somewhat understandable given the fact that last year was the worst year for Haas. Both young drivers – Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin together failed to score even a single point for the team. This year too, other than some impressive drives, Schumacher was behind his teammate Kevin Magnussen. Further, he became a reason for some of the costly crashes this year further adding stress to the team.
Team principal Guenther Steiner explained the decision not completely blaming the 23-year-old for his sacking:
“In racing, two years is a pretty good time, but there’s nothing before,”
began Steiner.
“He jumped straight from F2 to F1 in competition, because there is no testing. We reverted back to get an experienced driver that wasn’t in a car for three years, not full-time, because the young driver, you cannot evaluate or you take big risks.”
Steiner was not impressed by McLaren’s decision
Haas opted for a more experienced driver by choosing Nico Hulkenberg. McLaren on the other hand did the complete opposite by sacking an experienced driver for young talent. The Woking-based squad dropped Daniel Ricciardo to replace him with his Australian counterpart Oscar Piastri. The young Aussie will be driving for the team from next year.
Nevertheless, Guenther Steiner doesn’t seem that impressed by the decision made by McLaren. The Italian went on to question the decision wondering if Piastri really deserves that much hype:
“I mean McLaren takes on Piastri, but in the end, nobody knows how good he will be in an F1 car. He was very good in F3 and F2, but it’s still a big step to F1,”
explained Steiner.
“Obviously I think it is a little bit, I wouldn’t say a problem, but it’s one of those things, how much risk do you want to take to get a rookie in the car.”
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