Formula 1: Drive to Survive star \u2013 and Haas F1 Team Principal \u2013 Guenther Steiner spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com about his wild year and the future of F1. <\/p>

\u201cOh! I\u2019m sure I did! I\u2019m sure I did,\u201d Guenther Steiner roars.<\/p>\n

The term \u2018fok\u2019 appears on 192 of the 304 pages of the Formula 1 Haas Team Principal\u2019s new book, Surviving to Drive, and he freely admits he has said it to the wrong person, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.<\/p>\n

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As Team Principal, Steiner\u2019s role extends far beyond what happens on any given race day. He is the public face of the operation and was ultimately required to navigate the team through to calm waters, as fully documented in his book, essentially a real-time diary of the 2022 campaign.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI tried to explain things in the heat of the moment, you know, because I\u2019m very bad at remembering things so I have to do it straight afterwards and explain how it happened to bring it over to the people realistically, and I think it does.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember the difficulties, obviously, when the biggest thing, when Russia invaded Ukraine, because that was, on a personal level, it was quite a strange thing. I never thought, in my lifetime, there will be a war somewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t involved in the war, thank god, but there were consequences for us. That is a thing I will never forget, but the racing stuff normally is because we\u2019re doing it over and over again and I\u2019m doing it for more than 30 years. It\u2019s not always a routine, but it\u2019s things which happen normally, every second weekend, sometimes more excitement, sometimes less excitement, but the war is something I will not forget because I hope it was the only time I have to remember it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steiner continued: \u201cWhen you\u2019re there, you need to put the effort in to sort it out, you cannot procrastinate in something like this. When we found out, I was actually sitting with Gene Haas, sitting for breakfast, when I found out that the invasion happened, and it was like: \u2018We need to solve this.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cStuart Morrison [head of communications at Haas] was with me. I said: \u201cYou have to come in my office today because there will be a lot of phone calls being made and there\u2019s no point that I always come to you and tell you what happens. You sit there and you listen in to them, that\u2019s the best way,\u201d because he has then got to communicate our decisions with the world, my decisions.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYou just stay calm and you go do it. You stay rational, you speak with everybody involved, I spoke with the Russians, you know, I am not afraid, I had two calls that day with them. I had to speak with other sponsors, who obviously raised their opinion about it and there was no compromise from them. I spoke with the Haas Automation board, which is the main sponsor of our team and they were in alignment with my ideas. Then you just need to get it done, but in the end it\u2019s just work like every other day, obviously, with high stakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steiner and Haas did steady the ship. They continued on through 2022 snaffling points from larger constructors on their way, and their Team Principal confirmed his intentions to stay among the Formula 1 carnival for the foreseeable future during our chat.<\/p>\n
The 58-year-old has no plans to leave the sport any time soon and instead, he is looking ahead to the future, the innovations yet to come, and laid down a challenge for classic, historic race tracks which are unwilling to progress with the times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very encouraged by what is happening. I think they\u2019re putting good things on the calendar. I think this is also giving the opportunity to those \u2018classic\u2019 race tracks, the historic ones, they just need to step up their game and give the fans what other circuits, the new ones, give them. It\u2019s not too difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot rely on classic circuits if they say: \u2018I don\u2019t renew my infrastructure, I don\u2019t do anything, don\u2019t give entertainment to the fans. We are doing it like we did 30 years ago.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have changed in the last 30 years. They want different things, better things, more things and the classic tracks just to sit back and say: \u2018I want to do it like I always did because that is classic,\u2019 that is not good enough. I think there\u2019s enough examples out now from new circuits which come out now which make it happen that more people watch F1.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steiner continued: \u201cWe cannot now look at the classic ones say they don\u2019t need to do anything, you just need to be who you are because a minority of the fans like you. No, they have now got the opportunity to step up like everybody else and stay in the game.<\/p>\n
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\u201cJust keeping someone in the calendar because they are there for 30 years, that doesn\u2019t make it right. It\u2019s the same when you have got somebody working for you and he says: \u2018Oh, 30 years ago I did it like this and I was sending a fax \u2013 I don\u2019t want to use a computer.\u2019 That\u2019s not good enough anymore. You need to stay current. They have got all the opportunity \u2013 nobody was taken off the calendar of the classics, but they need to step up their game, try to make more revenue because everything gets more expensive, so I think they just need to come along.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of the sport, I think we will crack sustainability. We will we have to be sustainable by then because the whole world needs to do something and it goes the same for us. Like I said before for the race tracks, we need to stay current. How we do it, we don\u2019t know yet, but there\u2019s a lot of things going on, things we try to develop in Formula 1, sustainability-wise, that we are going to net zero as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sport is in a very good place now and we just need to always improve it every year, you know, we cannot sit back like it was maybe done 20 years ago, that we keep everything the same. I think it\u2019s in a good place and the technologies will move on. F1 is always a good place to push it, because we have got smart people, we have got money as well and we always want to be at the forefront of everything. It helps the general public as well and we just need to keep that on track to do that. There is a big push there from F1 to keep it going.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked asked about an all-electric future for F1, Steiner remained open-minded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there is more than electric for the future of sustainable technologies. Electric is not the only one. There are synthetic fuels, you know, some other combustion engine but fuelled differently, it could be still out there. We are not at the end to have the ultimate technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cElectric will be one of the ways to be but I don\u2019t know where Formula 1 will go. I mean for 2026 we go 50 per cent electric, 50 per cent combustion engine but with sustainable synthetic fuels we are still working on. We don\u2019t have the ultimate solution yet, but I think there\u2019s more than one way to do that and that is where Formula 1 has got an important role to play because we can do a lot of things other people cannot do.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 20 minutes of frank, candid thoughts, the \u2018fok\u2019 counter inexplicably remained at zero.<\/p>\n
Surviving to Drive by Guenther Steiner is out now (Bantam, \u00a320).<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
If you\u2019re looking for something else to watch, check out our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a> or\u00a0 Streaming Guide<\/b><\/a>, or visit our Sport<\/a> hub for all the latest news.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only \u00a31 with delivery to your home \u2013 <\/strong>subscribe now<\/strong><\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to <\/strong>The Radio Times Podcast<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n
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