Haas F1 boss Guenther Steiner. Photo / Photosport
Haas team principal and Drive to Survive star Guenther Steiner has a left-field answer when asked to identify a Kiwi driver capable of footing it in Formula One — Shane van Gisbergen.
“Liam Lawson is good but you have another guy that’s really good out there,” Steiner told the Herald from Melbourne. “He may be too old now [for F1] but Shane van Gisbergen as a race car driver is pretty cool.
”He can do things that not too many other people can do in a race car. I don’t know him personally but I have noticed what he’s done and what he’s doing. Whatever he drives, he’s good at, and that’s sheer talent. We’re not looking at anyone and it’s up to you Kiwis to support someone.”
Van Gisbergen has excelled in a variety of categories, including rally cars and single seaters, but is best known for his Supercars exploits.
Steiner is able to get a closer-than-usual look at van Gisbergen in action this week, with four Supercars races before the Australian Grand Prix.
The 33-year-old Kiwi won Thursday’s race and was third yesterday, with further Supercars races today and tomorrow.
Like van Gisbergen, Steiner has worked in many motorsport classes, starting as a mechanic in the World Rally Championship for Mazda, then moving on to manage Prodrive’s Allstar Rally team, winning the European Rally Championship.
In the late 1990s, he was with M-Sport as a project manager, eventually earning promotion to director of engineering at the Ford World Rally team, working with Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz.
The Italian then jumped across to Formula One in 2000 as team principal for Jaguar Racing. That tenure wasn’t too successful and Steiner was let go but became technical director for Opel Performance Centre in the DTM series.
After Red Bull bought Jaguar Racing in 2004, Steiner was asked to come on board as technical director, which lasted until the Austrian drinks manufacturer poached Adrian Newey from McLaren.
Team owner Dietrich Mateschitz asked Steiner to establish a Red Bull Nascar team, which he did for two years.
On leaving Red Bull, the 57-year-old set up his own manufacturing company before meeting Gene Haas in 2014. In 2016, Haas became the first American constructor team to compete in F1 for three decades.
Steiner’s passion for the sport over almost 40 years is undiminished.
“If you have the motorsport bug, that’s what you do. I always say that if you have to do this job, you will not do a good job,” said Steiner, one of the stars of groundbreaking docu-series Drive to Survive.
”You need to want to do the job and I have always wanted to do this job and have enjoyed everything I have ever done in motorsport. If I don’t enjoy doing something, I will stop doing it.
”I like racing cars and have done so since I was a child. I still like them — maybe I’m still a child and that’s why I like them and I haven’t grown up,” he jokes. “That’s what keeps me motivated. I like going to work and try to do better and that’s what keeps me in the game.”
F1 is notorious for rampant egos. Managing drivers who demand the best and are always looking to beat their teammate can’t be easy. And then there’s the expectations of the team owner and sponsors to balance.
”Drivers are like all of us, they want to succeed. You cannot get to the top on talent alone. You need passion as well and need to want to do this [racing].
”You get problems with driver motivation when you have a bad car. You have to then explain to them that the future looks better, and then explain why. Just saying it looks better does not work.
”You tell them you have to go through the rough times to get to the good times. If they cannot deal with that, you might have to change them.”
When Haas F1 first lined up on the grid in 2016, expectations were high. There has been the odd high but also plenty of lows. No Haas driver has ever reached the podium, never mind won a grand prix.
But Steiner’s positivity is unwavering and he is adamant Haas are making progress.
“We are a little behind where we were expected to be. We basically lost two years because of the pandemic. We didn’t develop anything in 2020, and in 2021, we didn’t know if we would be around.
”We decided to look forward to 2022 and the new regulations, but in the meantime lost two years of development. As we started operating as a normal team again, we started making progress.
”We need to keep the momentum going and build on last year. We are now back to our old strength of years two and three, and as the season goes on, we will get better. There have been some high points, but, boy, have there been plenty of bad moments.”
After two rounds of the 2023 season, driver Kevin Magnussen has earned one point for Haas in the constructors’ championship, while teammate Nico Hulkenberg is on zero.
”This year is a bit of an unknown. There are four teams that are a bit better than the rest, but there is no midfield any more. Everything from five to 10 is midfield now.
”It’s so tough and close now, and even a small mistake like a tenth of a second takes you from P8 to P18.
”It’s difficult to predict [the weekend] but I’m confident we will have a good race and get some points.”