Guenther Steiner was born

Guenther Steiner was born on April 7, 1965 in Merano, Italy, long before he became the blunt, highly visible public face of Haas and one of Formula 1’s best-known team bosses. His route there ran through Jaguar Racing and Red Bull’s first years on the grid.

Steiner did not arrive in Formula 1 as a celebrity. He came from rallying, where he had built his career through Mazda, Jolly Club, Prodrive and M-Sport before Ford moved him into Jaguar Racing at the end of 2001. Niki Lauda brought him in as managing director, with responsibility for the technical side of the team and the Milton Keynes factory.

That Jaguar spell was short, but important. When Red Bull bought Jaguar, Steiner returned to the reborn operation in January 2005 as technical operations director, working alongside Christian Horner in the team’s opening phase. It was another building job, which became a theme of his career.

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His most lasting Formula 1 work came with Haas. Steiner became team principal in 2014, two years before the American team reached the grid, and stayed in charge through its early rise, including points on debut in Australia in 2016 and fifth in the constructors’ championship in 2018. Later, Drive to Survive made him unusually famous for a team boss, but that was only part of the story. His real value was more practical than theatrical: he was one of the people in modern F1 who knew how to build a team from scratch and keep it moving. Steiner left Haas in January 2024.