“If this doesn’t work, something else will”: Guenther Steiner on Formula One management, Niki Lauda, and the mental game

An interview with former Haas Team Principle, Guenther Steiner.

Megan Grimston
22nd January 2025
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Guenther Steiner was the founding Team Principle of Haas F1 and up until the end of the 2023 season, he continued to run the team all across the globe. Since his departure from the team he has gone on to travel across the globe for his “An Evening with Guenther Steiner” tour in which he discusses all things motorsport. During this tour I had the opportunity to sit down and interview Steiner about his twenty-two years in Formula One. 

Trying to describe Steiner’s role in Formula One is a complicated task. Put simply, the Team Principal role is one that combines leadership, safety, and legality all into one management role. A background in motorsport is almost a necessity when stepping into such a role, and for Steiner this was not a lacking department. His history (starting in the 80s), made him a perfect candidate for the journey into Formula One.

“You grow with it, with the job” opened Steiner when reflecting on the impact his time in Formula One had on his current life. Everyday was a new opportunity to tackle his thought process, never once considering his time in the sport as a negative thing. While motorsport is a game of fine mechanics, for people like Steiner who take on the Team Principal role, the sport is a mental game at the highest stakes. “It’s high stakes, if you cannot do it, you won’t get in” explained Steiner when discussing his journey into Formula One. With such an intense environment, with everyone around a competitor, it goes without saying that those at the top like Steiner, build up a long term philosophy to live by. For the Haas founder, it was “what makes you suffer, makes you tougher”. Despite the conditions, Steiner made it unprecedentedly clear that this philosophy never escaped him, “you just have tough days” he joked. Even after his time in Haas ended, Steiner reflected positively on the end; implying he was happy it was over saying “I tried, maybe I wasn’t good enough but I tried”.

With the constant activity within Formula One, it’s no secret that results are everything, so the pressure to perform well is everything. However, with such a high prestige sport, there are a plethora of constraints that sometimes make this feel near impossible; especially for ‘budget teams’ like Haas. Though, this didn’t seem to phase Steiner saying; “I’ve been doing this a long time, I know what is and is not possible”. Although its founder, Steiner was not the man at the top; Gene Haas provided the team's title sponsor and therefore provided the team its money. The results mattered the most to him. Though, this didn’t have an impact on Steiner during his time at the team, explaining “it’s him not me, he can ask what he wants”. Since 2020, the team had slowly been struggling to match its success from the two years prior, and while this began to weigh down its members, Steiner didn’t lose his drive. Claiming that the experience had a good impact on him, he explained “I didn’t care, I learnt not to care.”

These weren’t the only factors that Steiner had to deal with however, almost synonymous with the Team Principle is Formula One’s Netflix show ‘Drive to Surive’. Steiner made it clear that he had no interest in watching the show out of worry that it would alter the way he behaved. “It’s a blessing” he said, describing the feeling he relates to the decision, “I just keep doing what I’m doing.” The show brought in swarms of new fans to the sport and reignited excitement in pre-existing ones, groups of whom would spend their time waiting for photographs and signatures of the show's star. This didn’t impact Steiner though, with an arsenal of experience under his belt, this was nothing out of the ordinary.

Being in the motorsport world for as long as Steiner has, faces begin to repeatedly show up. To Steiner, Niki Lauda was one of the nearest and dearest of those faces. After his passing in 2019, Steiner continued to lead the team during a time of grief. “All things come to an end” and “nothing lasts forever” are the two things Steiner expressed that gave him the potential to carry on managing the demands of running a Formula One team. The belief that Lauda was always going to be a part of Steiner was evident, with Lauda’s philosophy taking great influence on the way Steiner approached Formula One. With being such a significant part of the sport, there was a lot to learn from Niki Lauda. “If this doesn’t work, something else will” was Niki’s philosophy, and is what drives Steiner today. Simply, don’t worry because everything will be okay. 

Geunther Steiner is clearly an icon in Formula One culture. With his experience in team management, his ode to Niki Lauda, and ability to tackle the mental game; Steiner comes across fearlessly. Clearly, complicated characters appear within such a complicated sport, but to summarise simply Steiner says “If you want to achieve something and somebody tells you no, keep going.”

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