"So his argument is 'if we perform better, we would be better'": Fans react to Haas team principal claiming that the team could top the F1 midfield

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has made a bold claim about how his team has a chance to be at the top of the midfield table in the 2024 F1 season. Despite the fact that the American F1 team finished dead last in 2023, Steiner feels that the gap between every team is extremely close, so much so that a decent upgrade would catapult anyone to the top half of the grid.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, the Haas boss cited the example of how McLaren drastically turned their season around after introducing a strong upgrade package in Austria.

“With the budget cap now in place, everything is possible. McLaren at the beginning of the season didn’t start strong, then at some stage, they were second-fastest car..,” he pointed out.

Hence, he believes that the gap between midfield or backmarker teams has been blurred to a point where there are top teams and then there is the rest of the grid. This is the reason why Steiner feels Haas could end up at the top of the midfield table in 2024 if everything works out for the best.

“I don’t think there are top teams, midfielders and backmarkers anymore. There are top teams and the rest – in my opinion. Everyone is in a good place financially. We ended up last this year, but we could end up at the top of the midfield next year,” he explained.

As soon as this statement surfaced on social media platforms, F1 fans were quick to react. While one of them sarcastically praised Steiner's insight into how Haas would be better than other teams if they performed well, others did not buy his belief that his team would be at the top of the midfield in 2024.

Here are some of the reactions from fans on X:

"So his argument is 'if we perform better, we would be better, like teams that are better than us.' Fascinating insight," was one comment.

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Guenther Steiner shockingly reveals reasons behind Haas' poor car development in 2023

Haas was unable to improve their car like other teams in the 2023 F1 season. Their driver Nico Hulkenberg criticized the upgrades for not making any difference to the car as well.

Speaking recently to The Race, Guenther Steiner revealed that the reason behind not finding any pace through upgrades was not because they had less money or effort, but because the team was simply unable to find any performance out of VF-23.

“We got hit pretty badly with not making progress in development,” Steiner said. “We put all the effort in; there was no limitation on effort, and we had the budget to do upgrades. Everybody thinks we don't do upgrades because we don't have the money, but we didn't find any performance; that was the biggest thing.”

The American team finished last in the 2023 F1 constructors' championship with only 12 points.