Anyone who has seen the Netflix series ‘Drive to Survive’ knows this sentence from the mouth of former Haas team boss Günther Steiner: “I have to call Gene.” Team owner Gene Haas, omnipresent at the team boss’s ear. Nothing has changed for Steiner’s successor at Haas. In Formula 1 this can be a blessing or a curse.
“It’s not that I have to do it, but of course Gene is very, very interested,” reveals new Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu. So avoiding it doesn’t help: “After every qualifying, after every race, I talk to him.”
“And sometimes he calls me,” says Komatsu, recapitulating his rapidly growing experience in the top F1 management class. “I think it was in Australia. We’re in Q2 and before the end of Q3 my phone rings. Then I talked to him after Q3 because I wanted to see how Q3 ended!”
Better one call a day than ignorance
“But honestly – we had a good conversation”; Komatsu sees no problem in the process. Does it bother? “I think it’s very, very good to have an owner who is very interested. With my previous team I had a completely different case.” Here he thinks back to his time as an engineer at the moderately successful rebirth of Lotus, which was ultimately sold back to Renault in 2016.
Previously, Luxembourger Gerard Lopez’s investment firm Genii Capital had owned the team – and that was all, Komatsu remembers: “They didn’t care. That’s not good for the motivation of a team. Gene wants us to deliver. And ultimately he’s the one , who pays the bills, so it’s great for me and for the team that he’s involved.”
This delicate balance must be struck in every team, no matter how big and powerful. Red Bull has also worked its way into a perfect format over the years. With Dr. Helmut Marko, the motorsport consultant and confidant of CEO Dietrich Mateschitz. Each session was usually followed by a short telephone conversation between the two of them to take stock.
Stability on the phone as the key to F1 success?
Destabilization of these structures can leave noticeable traces. How are things going at Red Bull now, after Mateschitz’s death? The reports are still there, Marko revealed again and again last year. However, with the brand’s new sports CEO Oliver Mintzlaff, they started practically from scratch when it came to the direct relationship.
The potential damage from upheavals has particularly affected Ferrari in recent years. Between 2018 and 2023, the CEO, Ferrari CEO and team boss changed independently several times. With the effect that the team boss position was not filled by someone the management had selected.
An unhappy relationship between chairman of the supervisory board John Elkann and the new CEO Benedetto Vigna abruptly ended Mattia Binotto’s career as team boss.
The successor Fred Vasseur, who was hired by Elkann and Vigna, seems to be more positive in the structure. Unlike towards the end of Binotto’s term in office, there is no public criticism of Vasseur. From the start, he also tried to make it clear that he communicated daily – and positively – with his two superiors. So the mood is finally lifted again. More on Vasseur’s positive impact when putting together a “new Ferrari” can be found here: