Guenther Steiner Would Rather Have Adrian Newey Than Max Verstappen in Haas to Win the Title

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner was recently put in a hypothetical situation where he was asked which individuals would he need to challenge for the title. Since Red Bull were the utterly dominant team in 2023, there was no surprise that the 58-year-old chose an individual from them. However, his pick from the Milton Keynes outfit may raise eyebrows among some. Instead of choosing Max Verstappen, who won a record 19 out of 22 races in 2023, Steiner chose Adrian Newey.

The Italian-American defended his position by explaining how Haas currently needs a better car rather than a stronger driver line-up to challenge for the title. Steiner believes that even if the American outfit were currently to have three-time champion Verstappen in the team, they would not win a race.

When asked if he could sign one person working in F1 for free, Steiner without hesitation replied to The Athletic, “I will take Adrian Newey because I’m sure he can make a car which can win. The answer is quite obvious. Even if you take Max (Verstappen) with our car, we wouldn’t win. I think if we had a Red Bull, Nico could win races and Kevin“.

Although there is no doubt that Verstappen used his prowess to maximize the abilities of the RB19 to dominate in 2023, it was the technical genius of Newey that gave the Dutchman the opportunity to do so. There is no doubt that the 65-year-old British designer is arguably the best aerodynamicist in F1 history as his designed cars have won a total of 25 titles.

Fernando Alonso also once named Adrian Newey as F1’s top legend

Although it is the drivers who usually receive the acclaim because they are the ones who put on the show for the fans, a huge amount of effort goes behind the scenes to produce such a spectacle. Since the drivers themselves care about winning and having a successful career, they are often the people who know the best about the most influential figures in a team.

Fernando Alonso is arguably the driver who has the most knowledge about the same, having had the longest career among any of the current drivers on the grid. Since the 42-year-old himself has many a time not made the best career choices, he now has an understanding of which influential figures he would have needed on his side to have more success.

When once quizzed about the same, he had no hesitation in naming Adrian Newey. The Spaniard in an interview (as quoted by motorsport.com) referred to the 65-year-old as a “legend” before adding how it is a dream for him to work with the British aerodynamicist.

Newey was also instrumental in helping Red Bull achieve their recent success in the last couple of campaigns. Since he is one of the very few aerodynamicists who worked in the ground-effect era several years ago, he has an understanding of what the cars require under such regulations.

As a result, Newey was able to build a strong car that would help the Red Bull drivers obliterate the field. And that is exactly what happened. The team won a record 21 out of the 22 races in 2023. Max Verstappen was the star of the campaign as he won 19 of the races en route to winning his third consecutive championship.