Ex-Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner doubts his former team will be abl꧃e to “keep up” with their midfield rivals unless they change how they operate.

Steiner’s shock de♌parture from Haas was announced at 🐟the start of January.

The Austrian had been the figurehead of Hꩲaas since their debut in 2016.

It soon transpired that he and team owner Gene Haas had differing views on the direction o꧅f the team, leading him to be replaced by Ayao Komatsu.

The change is unlikely going to bring any immediate success as Komatsu has alrea🐷dy a🎃dmitted that Haas are likely going to have a tough start to 2024.

Analysing his old team, Steiner believes that Haas have no chance of keeping up with the likes of Williams and AlphaTauri if the🉐y d🦩on’t start investing in their facilities.

“I wanted to invest in the team, he di🅘dn’t,” Steiner told Auto Motorsport. “We simply had different views on how things should proceed. The way the team was set up, you couldn’t ask for much mor🤪e. This is not a criticism of the team, but the reality.

“The budget ❀cap has completely changed Formula 1. Old 🔯structures no longer work.

“McLaren, Williams, [and] AlphaTauri have been investing for two years in the i🌱nfrastructure so that they have more budget for the operational business. If you don’t follow suit, you can’t expect to be able to keep up.”

Steiner conceded that🐓 Haas did go down the wrong route with their design concept foꦛr 2023.

However, he feels that Haas’ sma💟ller workforce only makes things m♔ore difficult for the American outfit.

“It’s no secret that we were at an impasse with our concept and that it took us too lon♐g to react,” the Italian added.

“That’s what happens when you only ha🌌ve half as many𒁏 people as others. But our guys didn’t do such a bad job.”