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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Donald McRae

Haas’ Guenther Steiner: ‘Teammates shouldn’t be friends. They need to compete’

Guenther Steiner Gene Haas Nico Hülkenberg Max Verstappen Mick Schumacher Netflix Red Bull Fernando Alonso Kevin Magnussen Romain Grosjean
Haas F1 Team Prinicipal Guenther Steiner on the grid ahead of the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.
Guenther Steiner: ‘You have to take the stress if you want to do this job. And I’m going to do it as long as I want.’ Photograph: XPB Images/PA Images/Alamy

“The day I feel the backpack is getting too big or the donkey is getting too old and cannot carry it any more, the donkey will be stopping,” Guenther Steiner says with typical amusement as he reflects on the stress bearing down on him as one of the most famous faces in Formula One and as the principal of the Haas F1 team. Steiner’s ever-expanding celebrity is rooted in the way he has lit up Netflix’s Drive to Survive series with his idiosyncratic wit, ceaseless swearing and dramatic pronouncements in the paddock since 2019.

Steiner is a more measured presence in our interview than he appears on Netflix when, amid the drama of racing, he can say to his team boss, Gene Haas: “We just fucked this one up …but, Gene, if we finish fourth or fifth here we fucking look like rock stars. Now we are a fucking bunch of wankers. A bunch of fucking clowns.”

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