Guenther Steiner's response to his critics who feel he should be quicker with deciding his driver line-up for next year was simply: "Tough s***."
The Haas boss has an important choice to make. He can either hand Mick Schumacher a contract extension, giving the German another year to prove that he is worthy of his place in Formula 1 after some costly crashes, or he can replace him.
Nico Hulkenberg is the top candidate for the role if Steiner does decide to make a change. The 35-year-old would offer far more experience, but has not held a race seat since 2019 – though he has filled in a handful of times as a reserve for Aston Martin.
As the wait goes on for Steiner to make a decision, some fans have grown impatient. The German press has also been critical of the Haas boss, with some outlets claiming it is unfair to Schumacher to force him to wait for this long to find out whether or not he will have a place on the grid next year.
Reporters in Germany have also generally preferred to point the finger at the team when explaining the 23-year-old's underwhelming results. Schumacher currently holds the longest pointless streak on the grid, having failed to score in each of his last nine races.
But Steiner made it clear neither he nor anyone else in the team will be affected by outside criticism. "It doesn't," he replied when asked if that was the case.
"Just look who says it. You judge the people like this. I've got my opinion about the people and I don't need to write it on social media because I've got enough confidence to know what I do."
While he is clear that no-one at Haas will bat an eyelid at the criticism the team has received, Steiner admits the same is not true of fans. He believes their judgement will be swayed by those negative reports – but knows there is little that can be done about it.
"They are influenced but that is part of the game," he added. "But going into battle and always justifying when you know you did the right thing is like: 'Okay, a few fans are against that'. Tough s**t!"
