Steiner: I wish our team success in 2024!

Guenther Steiner, Haas F1 team principal, and Craig Slater, Sky Sports journalist, met for a chat about the winter holidays and next year in a classic English pub.

Furthermore, the pub’s name coincides with the title of Somerset Maugham’s classic novel, ‘The Moon and the Penny’, which also created a special atmosphere.

Gunther Steiner: “You know, as a child you always look forward to Christmas, and my parents had a butcher shop and obviously they had to work until Christmas Eve. And we lived in the mountains, and there was always a lot of snow in the Alps!”

After these memories, the interlocutors blew up a small firework to create a festive atmosphere, laughed and Steiner continued the story, but on racing topics: “Next year the photo can be anything. “Everyone is doing well financially, including technically. Although we were last this year, we may be able to move up, closer to the middle of the pack, in 2024.”

When Steiner was asked about the controversy between Formula 1 and the FIA, which was fully reflected in the strange story of the investigation into Toto and Susie Wolff, he replied: “I think it is very important for our sport to have the right find a solution. As we saw, all teams came together and made it clear what we wanted.

Formula 1 is currently in a very favorable position both as a business and as a sport and has an impressive audience. We cannot allow any problems to affect this in a negative way. Instead, the FIA ​​and FOM must address this situation themselves.”

Steiner also expressed his thoughts on the championship’s 11th team, which wants to become Andretti Cadillac: “They have General Motors Corporation as their partners, and that’s great. I am not aware of all the details of what is happening, as there has been no news about this project in recent weeks and even months, and I am just waiting to see what the next step will be. You have to trust the FOM, they are the ones who have to take certain steps, both forward and backward.”

Slater then invited his interlocutor to discuss the topic of possible changes in the composition of the teams at the end of next year.

“I think that in theory a lot of changes can happen at the end of the year,” said Günter Steiner. – Young riders get good chances to get to the championship. Perhaps some of the drivers currently competing in Formula 1 will decide to end their careers, while others may not show the desired results and no one will want to work with them. It is possible that some teams will decide to take a risk and bet on young racers.

Everyone saw how Oscar Piastri made his debut this year and immediately proved that he was excellent. We all saw this and thought: if it worked in the case of Piastri and McLaren, why couldn’t it work for someone else? It is very possible that there will be four or five new guys in Formula 1 in 2025.”

Steiner suggested that next season there will be drivers who can challenge Max Verstappen: “I think in 2024 someone can compete on an equal footing with Max and with Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton, for example, who doesn’t even think about slowing down. Although he will be 39 next year, he shrugs it off and remains in excellent physical condition.

But I hope the next world champion after Max will be Charles Leclerc! After all, this means that Ferrari has a good car, so our Haas must also be good.” (laughs)

Afterwards, Steiner and Slater exchanged gifts: the Haas F1 boss gave the journalist a book of his memoirs, published last year, and Craig, aware of Gunther’s foul language, presented him with a funny piggy bank designed to collect fines for public swearing.

Finally, Steiner tried to answer the question about his future work as a producer of a comedy series: “Gene Haas, the owner of our team, is not against this project, because it is always about the right distribution of time. I don’t know yet what it will be, although I am of course negotiating with CBS.

You should always strive for balance, choosing what to do and what not to do when a project takes too much time. For example, the book didn’t take long to write; I worked on it with an excellent professional who attended several races, and we worked there too. And if they end up making this show on CBS, I won’t be in it, I won’t be on screen.

And at the very end of this video interview, which is of course better to watch than to read, Steiner, as a Christmas greeting, wished his team good luck in returning to the middle of the pack and rising to higher positions: “I wish us luck! And everyone – Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I look forward to meeting everyone again next year, all the best to everyone!”