F1 icon admits stress was ‘virtually an dependancy’ as he considers shock return
F1 icon and former Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner called his time in the paddock an ‘addiction’ as he discussed potentially returning to the pit wall one day.
The 61-year-old helped form Haas Formula One Team with Gene Haas, filling the American void on the grid in 2016. Before that he was the managing director of Jaguar Racing and technical operations director of its predecessor Red Bull Racing.
But to many new fans of the sport, his time on the Netflix show Drive To Survive made him one of the most loved characters in the sport. Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star Sport, via 247bet, Steiner admitted he doesn’t miss his Team Principal gig.
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He said: “With Formula 1, I’m still at so many races with TV work, so I still see all the familiar faces who I might have missed. I don’t miss my role at Haas. I’m pretty happy to be gone from there, because the reasons why I left there are still there today.
“Of course, there were stresses to the job, and no, I don’t miss that. But you know, the stress, again, when you do that job, you want that stress. Otherwise, you cannot choose to run an F1 team and not have stress.
“If you cannot cope with the stress, you need to get a different job. You know, so it’s part of it.
“But obviously, when you don’t have it anymore, sometimes you think, why did I bloody do it? But then it’s like anything, it’s almost an addiction to this when you are in it.”
Now the CEO of Red Bull KTM Tech3 MotoGP motorcycle racing team, Steiner continued to say that he could be convinced to return to a role at an F1 team, but it would need to be a project he can throw himself into.
“If there is a project out there, I would consider it. A project that is. Not a job. I don’t want just a job, you know, I always need projects. I need a mission,” Steiner said.
“I need to do something where I’m fully involved in it. So yes, I still would go back, but I don’t know how much longer I will say that for, because I’m not getting any younger, you know.
“But I think I’ve got the experience, and I’ve still got my health, thank God, and I’ve got the energy. So I would do it, but it needs to be the right role. I would not go in just for the job title. I don’t need that anymore.
“I’m fine doing what I’m doing. I’m very happy as I’m a part-owner of a MotoGP team now. I’m busy with that one to set that one up for the future.
“So that’s again a project, a mission. We bought it together with investors. I need to do a good job to make it future-proof and to build it up. And that’s what I do now. But if something similar comes up in Formula 1, I would consider it, yes.”
