The most important thing is Mr Haas still thinks I do the right job. “And there’s no need to remind people all the time what I actually did. Have people forgotten the nous and vast experience in motorsport which helped him set up Haas as a pioneering US team and how he has managed to keep them racing? “I wouldn’t say forgotten,” he says with an airy wave. Steiner swears only once in this interview and he is thoughtful, and so I wonder if he also gets weary of his comic persona. My boss would not be happy with that one.” So if the fans like it and if they want a picture, why would I say no? But it takes time out of my day and I’m running a team and I cannot just run around taking pictures. No, we race for the fans because otherwise we are not racing. A lot of people in F1 think we race for ourselves. I think Formula One without the fans is nothing. The attention came with and changing my attitude would be wrong. Is he tired of the attention because, in some quarters of F1 fandom, Steiner stands alongside Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton as one of the most recognised faces of the sport? “Yeah, a little bit because I’m not doing it for the attention. Kevin Magnussen (left) sits on Max Verstappen’s tail at the Miami Grand Prix last month, with Nico Hülkenberg in the background. I’m not going up there just for fun, because it now takes me at least 20 minutes to get there.” It’s pretty difficult because the hospitality unit is a walk away and I only go there when I really need to. We talk in Monaco and I wonder if Steiner is hounded for selfies even here, amid the rich and famous.
“I try not to look at them because I don’t think I’m particularly good-looking. It topped the bestsellers’ list and, with his favourite swear word appearing as “Fok!” on most pages, the book has increased the demand for yet more T-shirts with Steiner’s face emblazoned across it. And I’m going to do it as long as I want.”Įarlier this year Steiner, a 58-year-old Italian who sounds as if he should be German, released a funny and revealing book, Surviving to Drive, which is a diary of last season. You have to take the stress if you want to do this job.
“Yeah, you feel the weight of it but I still enjoy it. “The donkey will know when that time has come,” he says before becoming more serious about the pressure he faces. Steiner chortles as he imagines himself as that donkey and he insists that stepping away from Formula One is not currently on his agenda.
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