Tech3 team owner Guenther Steiner has offered key insights into how his current role in MotoGP differs from his time running the Haas Formula 1 team.
Before joining Haas, Steiner built his reputation in rallying with Mazda, Prodrive and M-Sport, later moving into senior Formula 1 management roles at Jaguar Racing and Red Bull.
He led the Haas project from its debut season in 2016 until the end of 2023 before leaving the team following disagreements with owner Gene Haas over the American outfit’s future direction.
A consortium led by Steiner acquired Tech3 KTM in September 2025, replacing founder Herve Poncharal, who had run the team for 35 years after establishing it in 1990 alongside Guy Coulon and Bernard Martignac.
The new project marks Steiner’s first involvement in MotoGP, and when asked by Motorsport Week at Brno how his role differs from his time at Haas, given he is now an owner rather than the team principal, he explained where his focus lies within the team’s operations.
“It is a little bit different because in the end, when I did the other things, it was my sole job. I do other things as well now,” shared Steiner.
“But in the moment, I think this year and next year, I am more here because what technically has got, they are a very good race team. You know, they’re very good. They don’t need me.
“I mean, they are doing a better job than me going racing. They don’t need me. But what I try to do is just to help the team commercially and also big decisions like riders.
“I’m heavily involved in it because I want to be, you know, but it is different, but in the F1 team, I managed everything from the bottom up.
“Here, up to the middle, I have Nico [Goyon] doing it, you know, to run the race team. Obviously, I know what’s going on, but I don’t decide the mechanics and engineers; he needs to do all that stuff, not me.”
Rather than overseeing daily operations, Steiner said his role centres on commercial decisions, contracts and supporting Tech3’s long-term development.
“But I look after the contracts because I think there’s an evolution in the whole industry, MotoGP, and I think I can be of benefit to it, because I’ve done it before in another series when Liberty came in,” he added.
“I know a lot of people, you know, a lot of people know me. So it helps the team in general just to get bigger and better.”
Tech3 will remain KTM’s customer team under a multi-year agreement that extends into MotoGP’s new regulation era from 2027.
Its current rider line-up of Enea Bastianini and Maverick Vinales is also expected to be completely new for 2027, with Steiner and his team presenting an opportunity to Moto2 rider Senna Agius and targeting departing Honda rider Luca Marini.
Bastianini will join Trackhouse Aprilia to replace Yamaha-bound Ai Ogura, while Vinales looks set to leave MotoGP entirely despite the Spaniard claiming KTM had offered him a contract before quickly retracting the proposal.
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