Guenther Steiner

Italian American engineer who conceived the Haas team and was its team principal from its founding to 2023

Guenther Steiner

Italian American engineer who conceived the Haas team and was its team principal from its founding to 2023

Guenther Steiner, a butcher's son from Merano, left his engineering studies to work as a rally mechanic for Mazda in Belgium in 1986. He managed Prodrive's team to the 1997 European Rally Championship and was director of engineering at Ford's world rally team when Niki Lauda recruited him as managing director of Jaguar Racing for 2002.

The Haas team began, by his own account, as a business plan written at his kitchen table, which he pitched to Gene Haas over a steakhouse dinner. Named team principal on the 14th of April 2014, he built the operation, and in 2016 Romain Grosjean scored sixth on the team's debut, the first constructor to score on debut since Toyota in 2002. His forthright appearances on Netflix's Drive to Survive made him famous far beyond the paddock. He left at the start of 2024.

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