Although Guenther Steiner is a vocal character, he has admitted that he is no good behind the wheel of a race car. In an interview with the Athletic, the Haas boss expressed his honest opinion about his racing skills. He jokingly deemed himself “useless”, while answering an imaginative question of a team principals’ race using equal cars. Steiner admitted during the interview that he won’t be able to win against either Toto Wolff or Christian Horner.
Steiner said, “Toto’s quite a good race car driver because he drove in Formula Three. Christian (Horner) was a Formula Three driver. I, for sure, would not win because I’m useless so I will push people off the road.”
The 58-year-old isn’t wrong about his rival bosses’ racing skills. When Wolff and Horner raced professionally in the 1990s, they were decent drivers. The Mercedes boss has in fact won races in GT category races. Meanwhile, Horner wasn’t great but has driven for multiple years in the Formula 3 categories.
Christian Horner in his Alan Docking Racing Dallara F395 – Mugen Honda at Silverstone. #OTD 1995 British #F3 (Photo: Moments of Yesterday) pic.twitter.com/0YyXLTHn85
— Zdravko (@zdravkost) July 15, 2023
The Italian-American also pointed out Zak Brown as a good driver among the F1 team bosses. The McLaren CEO has also won multiple races during his heyday as a pro racer.
Brown raced in Formula Ford and the Formula 3 categories. Meanwhile, the American boss has also raced in the GT categories at Daytona 24. Hence, Steiner has a good sense of self-awareness when it comes to his racing skills, relative to Horner, Wolff, and Brown, who are all decently experienced drivers.
The weird tales of Toto Wolff and Christian Horner’s racing days
Toto Wolff once used to race in Red Bull overalls! It is astonishing to think that the Mercedes boss who smashed his headphones after a tussle with Red Bull recently once raced for them himself. It was during 2004 to 2006 when Wolff participated in multiple races wearing Red Bull colors.
In fact, the Austrian won the 1000 Hours of Interlagos in wet conditions in 2004, as per Crash.net. He also won in Red Bull overalls at the 2006 Dubai 24-hour race. It is safe to say that the Mercedes boss was once a Red Bull race winner!
Hoy cumple 5⃣1⃣ años la leyenda de Red Bull Toto Wolff. pic.twitter.com/jtwSBwyEWZ
— V9-F1 EN ESPAÑOL (@V9_PODCASTF1) January 12, 2023
However, till this point, Christian Horner had already quit his racing career as he felt he did not have the mental capacity to be a racer. In 1997, he set up a Formula 3000 team by taking a loan and that became successful. This forayed Horner into team management and then followed his Red Bull stint in 2005.
Similarly, Wolff quit racing but this was due to a lack of funding to advance his career. He then undertook business and investment opportunities. Eventually, he bought some shares of the Williams F1 team and got into the sport around the 2010s. In 2013, he made a similar investment in Mercedes and that was a big turning point for the Austrian.
Since then, Horner and Wolff have become prominent leaders as team principals of their respective teams. Meanwhile, Guenther Steiner had a different trajectory as he was already with Red Bull in its early days.
The Italian had worked with Jaguar too before they got sold off to Red Bull. This was when Steiner got to F1 and then during the early days with Red Bull, he helped shape the team in those formative years. While the Haas boss may not be great at racing, he undoubtedly has a strong sense of leadership just like Wolff and Horner.
