Known for his charisma and no-nonsense attitude, it would be hard to imagine Guenther Steiner being underconfident about his abilities. However, being human, he too doubted himself at one stage of his career, when he felt he was not cut out for F1.
It all changed for the former Haas Team Principal when he received a phone call from three-time F1 World Champion Niki Lauda.
Steiner spoke about the same during a recent interview, uploaded on Instagram by an account named @slmanoffical. He recalled how Lauda acted as a bridge between himself and the rest of the paddock since he barely knew anyone himself. The phone call eventually led to Steiner landing his first-ever job in F1 as team Principal of Jaguar.
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“I know nobody there or very few people,” Steiner said. “The point came when Niki Lauda called me up and I didn’t know Niki, I knew who he was, he was my idol when I was a kid.”
Despite Steiner and Lauda not knowing each other well, he took the Italian-American under his wing. “He introduces you to everyone, and you immediately are respected. People think, ‘This guy must know what he’s doing because he’s with Niki’. That I think was the crucial moment for me to go to F1.”
Steiner’s life could have taken a very different path had it not been for Lauda’s help. Even with that, the 59-year-old’s journey to F1 was unlike that of most other Team Principals. Instead of following the typical route, he went straight to leading a single-seater team at the pinnacle of motorsport.
Steiner’s journey from WRC to Formula 1
Before joining F1, Steiner worked in rallying, starting as a mechanic for Mazda before advancing to the role of assistant team manager at Top Run SRL.
He later took on more technical roles within the sport, eventually becoming the Director of Engineering for the Ford World Rally Team, where he worked alongside legends like Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz Sr.
Despite an impressive CV, Steiner lacked one crucial qualification for an F1 Team Principal role—experience in single-seater racing. Still, likely with Lauda’s backing, Jaguar appointed him as its Team Principal in F1 in 2001.
However, he took a step back from Jaguar—which later became Red Bull—when he moved to the Austrian squad’s NASCAR venture in the States.
But Steiner wasn’t done with F1. He returned with a bang, leading Haas, a new outfit that represented America in the sport. From 2014 to 2023, he played a key role in helping the Kannapolis-based team settle into F1.
Sadly, in 2023, Steiner lost his position at Haas following a string of poor performances amid rising expectations. Since then, he has stepped away from the technical side of F1 and transitioned into a media career.
