Despite his longstanding career in Formula 1, Christian Horner claims that Drive to Survive is what ‘made’ Guenther Steiner.
Guenther Steiner became one of Formula 1’s most well-known characters when Drive to Survive aired. Steiner and Horner have both been in the sport for decades, and they worked together briefly in 2005, with Steiner as technical operations director and Horner as team principal.
He was lured to NASCAR in 2008, moved to the United States, and returned to F1 in 2016 to lead the Haas F1 team as it entered the paddock.
The boom of Drive to Survive
As Drive to Survive aired, many teams were wary of the concept and didn’t participate in the initial season, with Haas becoming a focal point of the show. Steiner quickly became a fan favourite from the paddock with his attitude and occasional swearing appealing to viewers.
Over time, Steiner became one of the most well-known people in the paddock. However, his journey was cut short when he left the paddock at the end of the 2023 season, with Haas choosing not to renew his contract.
Since leaving the sport, Steiner has continued to capitalise on the fame; he has released a book, gone on tour and appears regularly on podcasts.
Horner, who was promoting his own autobiography, told Autosport that Steiner has Netflix to thank for his notoriety.
“These guys are making a TV show,” he said, “so they take hours and hours and hours of footage, and it’s all about how you edit something.
“You can either make somebody look like the villain or the hero, or vice versa.
“That show has been incredibly successful because it suddenly lifted the lid on some of the rivalries, the personalities, the drivers’ personalities, some of the characters.
“Guenther Steiner has made a career off the back of it… I mean, I don’t think he ever achieved a podium in Formula 1!”
Horner reflects on time with Steiner
Horner then praised Steiner for bringing in new fans through the show, saying the fame gained was ‘good for him’.
“But good for him. He is a character, quite a scary character when he worked for us, but yeah, he’s brought a whole new fan base into the sport, which has been fantastic.”
Horner went on to speak about the time Steiner and he spent as colleagues, the Brit joking about the Italian’s work on the RB2.
“When I arrived at Red Bull, they said we’ve employed this guy that Niki Lauda had recommended; he used to be at Jaguar. His name’s Guenther Steiner,” added Horner.
“I’d never heard of him, and when I looked him up on the internet he looked fairly scary; that was my first impression, and then Guenther turned up.
“He was then responsible for the RB2, the Ferrari-powered car that overheated by about three degrees at Silverstone on a shakedown.
“Adrian Newey turned up shortly afterwards and said, ‘Well, we’ll forget about that car’.
“Then Guenther went off within the Red Bull world to work on the NASCAR project that was just getting going, and that was his sort of transition into the American world.”
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