Guenther Steiner Laughs Away the Pain of Almost Becoming a 13x Champion With Red Bull

Many know Guenther Steiner as one of the most popular faces on Drive to Survive. However, there was a time when Steiner worked beside Christian Horner. The Italian was a part of Red Bull’s predecessor team, Jaguar, from 2001 but left the side amid turbulent circumstances in 2003. He then worked as the technical director at Opel Performance Center.

However, Steiner did have a homecoming in 2005 to Milton Keynes when Red Bull bought Jaguar. So why didn’t the current Haas team boss stay to become a 13 time champion at Red Bull Racing? Advertisement When the Austrian team hired Adrian Newey from McLaren at the end of 2005, had to make way. However, Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz offered the 58 year old a chance to lead Red Bull’s NASCAR project instead of letting him go entirely.

Steiner accepted this and led Team Red Bull in the Cup Series from 2006 to 2008. However, Steiner humorously recalls in an interview with that he had a disagreement with the team. He stated, “ Advertisement Loading embed tweet https://twitter.com/AnythingF1_/status/1614897420973871104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw As a result, the Italian left the brand entirely after 2008.

This was coincidentally the time when their F1 team began to have an upturn in form. Sebastian Vettel came in as their man with a Midas touch and turned the tables. The German helped the team win four Constructors and Drivers’ Championships from 2010 to 2013. About a decade later, Max Verstappen has now helped the team win two Constructors and three Drivers’ titles.

As a result, Red Bull have won 13 championships since Steiner’s departure. However, it wasn’t the worst of periods for Steiner. He became the team boss for and has been one of the strong entities of the paddock since 2016. However, Haas’s position is a big contrast to where Red Bull is currently.

Thus, he may laugh it off now, but Steiner must be wondering had he stayed at Red Bull, what could have been for him just like Horner and Newey. Advertisement How Red Bull and Christian Horner didn’t feel Guenther Steiner was the right choice? Despite his experience in racing and technical leadership, Guenther Steiner did not receive ‘s approval.

Just a year after working with him, the Red Bull boss felt that Steiner wasn’t the right technical leader for the team. Horner but Red Bull’s founder Mateschitz gave him an opportunity in NASCAR. With a reported $3 million payday, Steiner moved to Mooresville, North Carolina, in the US. Until 2008, he led Red Bull’s NASCAR team.

Meanwhile, the F1 team at Milton Keynes was developing itself to become the behemoth it is today. Loading embed tweet https://twitter.com/racefansdotnet/status/1218860668700459008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Horner pushed hard to hire Adrian Newey from McLaren, and it proved to be a masterstroke. Newey’s intellect and brilliance fit perfectly with Horner’s leadership and the 50 year old found his right compatriot.

The British designer took a couple of years and started delivering race winning cars from 2009 onward. The rest is history as the F1 grid witnessed it. For Steiner, he had to wait until 2014 to return to F1 when Gene Haas, a wealthy American businessman, demonstrated an interest in joining the sport.

Steiner pushed Haas to invest in his own team entry and thus was born. Gene Haas appointed Steiner as the team principal and that was the return of the iconic Italian leader to Formula 1. Advertisement.