How Guenther Steiner Became Formula 1’s Unlikeliest Household Name

In 2021, when Haas did not produce a competitive car, Schumacher was much better than his fellow rookie Nikita Mazepin—but also, unfortunately, crashed a lot. And when that continued into 2022, and Haas re-signed its old driver Kevin Magnussen to replace Mazepin, Schumacher’s performances were not good enough to balance out the bad. 

Steiner cut his young driver little slack, and the fifth season of Drive to Survive that aired in February this year revealed just how scathing he could be. One brutal example was when Schumacher expressed concern over the team radio during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix about his brake temperatures, and Steiner muttered to himself on the pitwall: “He’s going so fucking slow he doesn’t need the brakes.”

“It’s not personal,” Steiner counters. “In the heat of the battle, you say things where, maybe if you ask me an hour later, I would phrase them a little bit different. I wouldn’t say I forget about the mic, but I don’t care because they need to be said. We are working, we are fighting hard – this is not an easy job, so my job is not just to be nice with people. If somebody doesn’t contribute, we need to do something about it. I’m sorry.”

Before the Schumacher-Mazepin season, Steiner had worked mainly with older, more experienced drivers. Having replaced Schumacher with veteran Nico Hulkenberg, he is in more familiar territory. He admits this probably suits him better.  “I know that I’m not the easiest character to deal with,” Steiner says. “And I’m not trying to be difficult because I want to be difficult. That’s me. Everybody’s got his personality, mine is what it is. Some people like my personality, some people really hate it. But I’m not gonna change for other people.”

Like him or loathe him, Steiner is a refreshingly genuine character. F1 team principals—equal parts coach, general manager, rocket scientist, and therapist—tend to be very careful what they say and protect their position at all costs. Steiner’s approach would not be possible without the authority he carries at Haas, where the eponymous team owner is happy to let him run the show pretty much uninterrupted. “If this team would be a big corporation, I think it will be more difficult,” he says. “But at the moment, I think it works. I would struggle without the freedom, just as my character. And when you get older, you really have got a little bit of an advantage. I can choose what I’m doing as well. I don’t want to sound arrogant. But if I don’t do this, I’ll just do something different.”

Which is why, for example, Steiner says he would never do what his good friend and (until this season) fellow midfield F1 team principal Fred Vasseur did over the offseason: take the Ferrari job. 

A move to F1’s most famous team really wouldn’t appeal? 

“No,” he says, definitively. “And I don’t want to sound arrogant, not to want to go to Ferrari. I’m just very happy here. I have a job to finish. And I’m happy to do that job. For me, sometimes it’s better to be the head of a mouse than the tail of a cat.”