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Guenther began his professional career in rallying when he joined the Mazda Rally Team Europe as a mechanic. His profession has taken him across the globe, and he was most recently the F1 Haas Team Principal. He also appears in the Netflix show Drive to Survive, which led to his book Surviving to Drive.
In leading the Haas F1 Team, Guenther Steiner became one of Formula 1’s most popular and high-profile Team Principals. With over thirty years’ experience in international motorsport, he led America’s only Formula 1 team since launching its inaugural World Championship campaign on behalf of team owner Gene Haas until 2024
Guenther began his professional motorsport career in rallying, initially achieving success with Mazda before joining the independent Top Run team and later the Jolly Club organisation, fielding cars including the famous Lancia Delta Integrale and Ford Escort RS Cosworth. The team won consecutive Italian Rally Championship titles with Guenther in the role of Technical Manager. A move to the Prodrive organisation in the UK saw Guenther become team manager for its Allstar Rally Team, winning the European Championship in just its first season. This led to him being invited to join Ford’s rally team, M-Sport, where he became Director of Engineering, working with World Champions Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz.
Ford then asked Guenther to move across to its Formula 1 project, Jaguar Racing. As Managing Director, he took on the task of restructuring the team and in his single season the team scored a podium finish in Italy with driver Eddie Irvine. After a short period working with Opel, Guenther soon returned to Formula 1 with Red Bull Racing. The energy drinks company later asked him to establish its NASCAR racing programme in the US.
When entrepreneur Gene Haas began exploring the logistics of creating a Formula One team, he approached Guenther to lead the effort. His experience of building successful race and rally teams from scratch made him the ideal person for the task. In its inaugural season the Haas F1 Team finished eighth in the constructor standings with a total of twenty-nine points, the most of any new team in this millennium. Since then, Haas has become firmly established as one of F1’s leading independent teams and have finished fifth in the World Championship. Guenther’s team scored its first ever Formula 1 pole position in the hands of Danish driver Kevin Magnussen.
Guenther has become a media and fan favourite, thanks in part to his straight-talking style and keen sense of humour which became evident through the hugely popular Netflix series Drive To Survive.
