Guenther Steiner on how Charles Leclerc signed for Sauber instead of Haas

Haas’ team boss Guenther Steiner has explained why he didn’t try to secure Charles Leclerc’s services for 2017, despite rumours linking the two parties.

Charles Leclerc’s rapid rise to Formula 1 saw him linked heavily with the Haas team during 2016, the year of the Monegasque driver’s title win in the GP3 series.

The rumours suggested that, if Leclerc won that title, he would be fast-tracked into Formula 1 with Haas due to his connections as a Ferrari junior – Leclerc had signed up with the Ferrari Driver Academy that season and was working as a development driver with Haas and Ferrari.

But such a move never came about, with Leclerc moving on Formula 2 in 2017, where he won the title, before making the leap to F1 with the Sauber team – a fellow Ferrari customer team to Haas.

With Leclerc having taken part in FP1 sessions with Haas in 2016, Steiner explained at the time that his inexperience meant him being ruled out for the following season.

Guenther Steiner elaborates on why he didn’t sign Charles Leclerc

Speaking on the Sky F1 podcast in the lead-up to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Steiner carried out a fan question and answer session where he was asked about whether Leclerc had ever been a realistic prospect for Haas for 2017.

“No, he was a Ferrari driver,” Steiner explained.

“Obviously, we could have had him as a one-year driver. At that time, we were not into having just a one-year driver because, for a team, that is normally not something you want to have.

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“Because you train the driver and then when or if he’s a good driver, when he gets good, you move him on. So, in the end, you are nothing else than a proving ground for a big team.

“So, therefore, we didn’t do it. If he wanted, I don’t know if Ferrari would have given him to us for one year, but they gave him to Sauber at the time, but we were not actually bidding for him.”

Guenther Steiner impressed by Charles Leclerc’s low-key practice outings

While Leclerc did take part in four FP1 session with Haas during 2016, he kept his head down and didn’t put in any eye-catching displays – a quality that, with hindsight, Steiner was impressed by.

Asked about whether the Monegasque’s prodigious talent was noticeable, even back than, Steiner said he noticed Leclerc’s mature approach more than anything.

“We can never forget his first drive in an F1 car was with Haas in an FP1,” he said.

“It’s difficult to see in FP1, the clever drivers, the really fast ones, they do not do anything over the top because they don’t want to take any risk. They are aware of this because the worst thing for a junior driver who gets into F1 is to crash out in one of these FP1 sessions. Because people will always remember that.

“In F1, you never take that off your resume – when you sat in an F1 car the first or the second time in FP1 and you crashed it, you’re already known as a crasher even if he just tried a little bit too hard. So Charles was very smart in there. He just tried to get a feel for the F1 car and did what he needed to do.”