Many know Guenther Steiner as one of the most popular faces on Drive to Survive. However, there was a time when Steiner worked beside Christian Horner. The Italian was a part of Red Bull’s predecessor team, Jaguar, from 2001 but left the side amid turbulent circumstances in 2003. He then worked as the technical director at Opel Performance Center. However, Steiner did have a homecoming in 2005 to Milton Keynes when Red Bull bought Jaguar. So why didn’t the current Haas team boss stay to become a 13-time champion at Red Bull Racing?
When the Austrian team hired Adrian Newey from McLaren at the end of 2005, Steiner had to make way. However, Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz offered the 58-year-old a chance to lead Red Bull’s NASCAR project instead of letting him go entirely. Steiner accepted this and led Team Red Bull in the Cup Series from 2006 to 2008.
However, Steiner humorously recalls in an interview with The Athletic that he had a disagreement with the team. He stated, “I fell out with them. (Laughs.) We didn’t fall out. We disagreed on how to go forward. I had a plan, and they disagreed so we parted company. Simple as this.”
Guenther Steiner, Christian Horner, Red Bull, 2005 pic.twitter.com/Kdz4NzPt2x
— AnythingF1 (@AnythingF1_) January 16, 2023
As a result, the Italian left the Red Bull brand entirely after 2008. This was coincidentally the time when their F1 team began to have an upturn in form. Sebastian Vettel came in as their man with a Midas touch and turned the tables.
The German helped the team win four Constructors and Drivers’ Championships from 2010 to 2013. About a decade later, Max Verstappen has now helped the team win two Constructors and three Drivers’ titles. As a result, Red Bull have won 13 championships since Steiner’s departure.
However, it wasn’t the worst of periods for Steiner. He became the team boss for Haas F1 and has been one of the strong entities of the paddock since 2016.
However, Haas’s position is a big contrast to where Red Bull is currently. Thus, he may laugh it off now, but Steiner must be wondering had he stayed at Red Bull, what could have been for him just like Horner and Newey.
How Red Bull and Christian Horner didn’t feel Guenther Steiner was the right choice?
Despite his experience in racing and technical leadership, Guenther Steiner did not receive Christian Horner‘s approval. Just a year after working with him, the Red Bull boss felt that Steiner wasn’t the right technical leader for the team. Horner wanted to let him go but Red Bull’s founder Mateschitz gave him an opportunity in NASCAR.
With a reported $3 million payday, Steiner moved to Mooresville, North Carolina, in the US. Until 2008, he led Red Bull’s NASCAR team. Meanwhile, the F1 team at Milton Keynes was developing itself to become the behemoth it is today.
#OTD 15 years ago – Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and technical director Guenther Steiner at the team’s first test session in Barcelona – long before Steiner became Horner’s opposite number at Haas.#F1 pic.twitter.com/vYF69PggVB
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) January 19, 2020
Horner pushed hard to hire Adrian Newey from McLaren, and it proved to be a masterstroke. Newey’s intellect and brilliance fit perfectly with Horner’s leadership and the 50-year-old found his right compatriot.
The British designer took a couple of years and started delivering race-winning cars from 2009 onward. The rest is history as the F1 grid witnessed it.
For Steiner, he had to wait until 2014 to return to F1 when Gene Haas, a wealthy American businessman, demonstrated an interest in joining the sport. Steiner pushed Haas to invest in his own team entry and thus Haas F1 was born. Gene Haas appointed Steiner as the team principal and that was the return of the iconic Italian leader to Formula 1.
