Guenther Steiner turns 60 on Monday. For the former Haas team principal, who has spent more than half his life in motorsport, the birthday celebrations will be relatively low-key with his family in his Italian hometown of Merano. After that, however, he begins a tour that promises to be even more demanding than a Formula One calendar.
Over the following three months, Steiner will perform 42 shows across the UK, Ireland and the Isle of Man, visiting venues in places including Yeovil, Harrogate and Plymouth.
The scale of his popularity is clear from last year, when all 25 of his UK shows towards the end of the year sold out.
It may not replace the adrenaline of working in F1 — Steiner was dismissed by Haas in December 2023 after a decade at the helm — but his new career has brought plenty of satisfaction.
His celebrity status, driven largely by his memorable appearances on Netflix’s Drive to Survive, was underlined one October day in Manchester. Steiner was stunned when a packed audience turned out for both his morning and afternoon performances.
‘I love telling my stories, even though we always run out of time. The audience ranges from very young people to very senior people, and I enjoy seeing the cultural differences, particularly between the north and south of England,’ Steiner tells Mail Sport.
Guenther Steiner was the Team Principal of Haas Formula One Team from 2014 to 2023
Steiner pictured in 2022 alongside drivers Mick Schumacher (left) and Nikita Mazepin (right)
Steiner is hugely popular among F1 fans, thanks in large part to his prominent role in Drive to Survive
‘People in the north are noisier and more outspoken, like me — more to the bone, as they say. Down south, people are a little more reserved, but it’s nice to experience all of it. I lived in England for 10 years, so I had heard about the differences, but when you do these shows, you feel them and understand them,’ he adds.
Steiner was shopping for ham in a supermarket in Merano when Gene Haas called to tell him their time together was over. It was between Christmas and New Year, but within days broadcasters were competing to sign him for the coming season. His popularity made that no surprise.
That night, he lay awake reflecting on the Haas story — from his original idea of establishing the team to the effort required to keep it going, despite the absence of a single podium finish.
Those experiences became the foundation for his book, ‘Unfiltered’. In its foreword, Steiner’s friend Toto Wolff wrote: ‘It was like he read a management textbook, then decided to do the opposite in almost every situation.’
Yet that unconventional approach captured the public imagination. Steiner also concedes that a return to the F1 paddock as part of a team cannot be ruled out. The ambition is still there.
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‘I would consider going back to F1, but only if it was a project I really liked — not simply another job,’ Steiner says. ‘I’ve already done that: working 14 hours a day, seven days a week and 12 months a year, and I think I did a bloody good job of it.
‘The best thing about life now is that I can leave on a Sunday night without any problem. If I return to run a team, I want to do it my way and be competing for podiums and championships. At the moment, there is nothing like that, but in F1 things can change very quickly,’ he adds.
Remarkably, Steiner does not swear once during our interview. He insists, however, that his temperament has not fundamentally changed — he has simply become better at controlling himself since taking on punditry work. ‘When I have a microphone in my hand, it’s like a switch. The F word disappears now,’ he jokes.
He is far less amused by the FIA’s new regulations, under which drivers can be fined for swearing.
Haas driver Oliver Bearman (left) pictured shaking hands with Steiner in Melbourne last month
Steiner, who turns 60 on Monday, was dismissed by Haas in December 2023
He was shopping in a supermarket when Gene Haas (pictured) called to tell him it was time to move on
‘It’s ludicrous. A sport without emotion isn’t a sport,’ Steiner says. ‘As long as you don’t hurt anybody, it is fine. It should have been handled by simply telling the drivers, “Hey guys, tone it down a notch,” rather than turning it into such a major issue.’
Steiner now covers 12 of the 24 races for German broadcaster RTL. His touring schedule has been arranged around selected race weekends, and he insists he has no intention of slowing down any time soon.
Last year, he became an ambassador for the Miami Grand Prix. He also speaks enthusiastically about the prospect of Formula One returning to Africa within the next decade and would welcome more sprint races to add further excitement to the championship. His passion for racing remains obvious, which explains why the producers of Drive to Survive found a way to include him briefly in the latest season — even as social media filled with fans saying how much they missed him.
‘I think it is quite entertaining what has happened to my character. I’m happy to laugh at myself and give people some enjoyment because I’ve never taken myself too seriously,’ Steiner says. ‘A sport could not ask for anything better than a young audience because it means the future is secure, and a lot of that is down to Drive to Survive,’ he insists.
For now, that future does not include him as a team principal. But after spending time in his company, it is hard to avoid the feeling that, as he enters his 60s, the unfiltered Guenther Steiner is ready to write several more chapters.
Guenther Steiner will visit 42 venues across the UK, Ireland and the Isle of Man between April 23 and July 20 for Unfiltered Live. Tickets are available for the shows at Fane.co.uk.
