02/09/2020
NEWS STORY
While Kevin Magnussen had a two-year deal in place, when it was announced almost a year ago that Romain Grosjean had been retained for another year, the move appeared to confirm that Haas was eyeing the sport's exit door.
However, having signed-up to the new Concorde Agreement, it would appear that Haas is here to stay, though Guenther Steiner insists that no decision has been made in terms of the team's line-up going forward.
"The conversations haven't started yet," said the Italian, "because I always said I wanted to first to get the Concorde deal done - or we want to get the Concorde deal done - and then we think about it.
"Gene (Haas) hopefully comes to some of the next races and then I can sit down with him and discuss our drivers, or what he will do for the future, which direction we go," he added.
"I think their strengths are they are both experienced drivers now," he continued. "They are both with us a long time, Romain even a year longer that Kevin, and in the end they did a good job for us... but sometimes you need change.
"But we don't know," he admitted. "I'm not saying that we change them, I just don't know what we're going to do.
"I'm not thinking a lot about that one right now. That will come as well to sit down with Gene and have discussions with him and then for sure he will have his ideas and we'll put everything together and come up with a solution for it."
Following Nico Hulkenberg's successful outing at Silverstone in the 70th Anniversary race, the German has been linked with the American team and also Alfa Romeo.
Asked, in lieu of Ferrari's 'problems', whether a change of engine partner might also be on the cards, Steiner admitted: "It would be very difficult for us... how we are set up in the moment, to make a quick change. It would need to be made over a few seasons.
"It cannot be made, for example, for next year or something like this," he added. "At the moment we go through the tough times with Ferrari and hopefully we can both get out at the end in a better state and that is what we are doing at the moment."