Exclusive: Steiner namechecks Mercedes figure key to Haas F1 turnaround

Guenther Steiner has namechecked new Mercedes-signing Simone Resta as the key figure behind Haas's F1 turnaround. 

Resta recently joined Mercedes as the strategic development director after leaving Haas in January 2024 following Steiner's own departure, having joined from Ferrari to serve as technical director.

The 2023 Haas machine suffered from high tyre wear that the team could not solve, and finished last in the F1 constructors' championship for the second time in three seasons, after 2021.

But this season, Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen have fared better, scoring 28 points in total, and are challenging RB for sixth in the standings, which would be Haas's best result since fifth in 2018. 

Reflecting on his old team, who have just announced a new technical alliance with Toyota, Steiner heaped the praise on Resta, but insisted Haas's results were "relative."

"I think that they're doing pretty good, but that is the best that you can do," Steiner exclusively told RacingNews365.

"It has got a lot to do with what the guys did last year when it was decided to develop the car, and I have to give a lot of credit to Simone Resta, who has just started at Mercedes. 

"Last year, when we sat down in June and said: 'This year's car is not going to work, we need to change it' and that is what he did. They've put everything together and have got a pretty good car this year, but what is good?

"You say they're having a great season, but it is all relative, but I think the car at the start of the year was pretty good, which was put together by the team in Maranello and Simone.

"I don't want to take credit for that, and want to give it to Simone, it is pretty decent and the best you can get."