Surviving to Drive

Informationen zum Autor Guenther Steiner is an Italian motorsport engineer and team manager. He is the current team principal of the Haas Formula 1 Team, and the previous managing director of Jaguar Racing and technical operations director of its subsequent incarnation, Red Bull Racing. In 2014, Guenther persuaded Gene Haas, owner of Haas Automation and NASCAR championship-winning team Stewart-Haas Racing, to enter Formula 1. With their entry in the 2016 season, Haas became the first American constructor to compete in Formula 1 in thirty years. Klappentext A jaw-dropping account of a year inside Formula 1, from Haas team principal and breakout star of the wildly successful Netflix series Drive to Survive, Guenther Steiner. This is the first ever behind the scenes record of a full Formula 1 season from the perspective of an acting team principal. Leseprobe OFF SEASON Monday, 13 December 2021Yas Marina Circuit, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi It probably won't surprise many people that I am starting my book with a swear word but all I can say is, thank fok that season is over! It's been a nightmare from start to finish. I don't drink very much but this year I've been tempted to take it up professionally. Whisky on a foking drip. That's what I needed sometimes! It hasn't just been this year, though. The shit goes back even further than that. Being kicked out of Melbourne at the start of 2020 was probably where it all began. We thought we'd be racing again in a couple of weeks' time but what was actually ahead of us all was months and months of uncertainty. Will we survive? Will we even race again? Nobody knew, you know. It's no secret that there were probably four teams that could easily have gone under during that time, including us. Pete Crolla, our team manager, had meetings with the FIA and Formula 1 two or three times a week, and while he fed everything back to Gene Haas and me, we tried to keep everything afloat. Even the sport itself was under threat for a time because we didn't know how long the pandemic would last. Would it be three months? Would it be three years? Would it be three generations? In the end Formula 1 basically shut down for about ninety days. That's incredible, when you think about it. Especially for a sport that is famous for progression. The only time this sport ever comes close to shutting down is during the summer break and over Christmas. But even then there is a lot ticking along in the background. Me, for instance. You think that I shut down in the summer and over Christmas? Don't be ridiculous. I have things to do. That ninety days, though, was a pretty shit time. The thing that Formula 1 as a whole did right during those ninety days was to carry on as if things would eventually get better, at least as much as it was possible. This meant that when we could come up for air and start racing again we'd be ready to go. A lot of people worked hard to make that happen and it was a big risk. I mean, how long can you keep an engine ticking over before it finally runs out of gas or goes wrong? It was a nervous time. We as a team had to do a lot of restructuring in order to keep us ticking over, so it wasn't just a case of carrying on and hoping for the best. For sure, nobody was able to do that. One element of the 'return to racing' programme that was devised by the FIA and Formula 1 was the continuation of the existing regulations so, rather than produce a brand new car concept for the following season, we had to develop the existing cars. Unfortunately, for reasons I'll very soon explain, our 2020 car wasn't a great one so instead of trying to develop that for the rest of 2020 and throughout 2021, which would have been like trying to polish a turd, to be honest with you, we made the decision to use it again as it was, give or take, and put everything into developing a new car concept using the new regulations that were com...

Auteur
Guenther Steiner is an Italian motorsport engineer and team manager. He is the current team principal of the Haas Formula 1 Team, and the previous managing director of Jaguar Racing and technical operations director of its subsequent incarnation, Red Bull Racing. In 2014, Guenther persuaded Gene Haas, owner of Haas Automation and NASCAR championship-winning team Stewart-Haas Racing, to enter Formula 1. With their entry in the 2016 season, Haas became the first American constructor to compete in Formula 1 in thirty years.

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#1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER • A high-octane, no-holds-barred account of a year inside Formula 1 from Haas team principal Guenther Steiner, star of Drive to Survive, one of the most successful Netflix series of all time

“People talk about football managers being under pressure. Trust me, that's nothing. Pressure is watching one of your drivers hit a barrier at 190mph and exploding before your eyes...”

In Surviving to Drive, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner brings readers inside his Formula 1 team for the entirety of the 2022 season, giving an unobstructed view of what really takes place behind the scenes. Through this unique lens, Steiner guides readers on the thrilling rollercoaster of life at the heart of high-stakes motor racing. Packed full of twists and turns, from pre-season preparations to hiring and firing drivers, from the design, launch, and testing of a car to the race calendar itself–Surviving to Drive is the first time that an Formula 1 team has allowed an acting team principal to tell the full story of a whole season.

Uncompromising and searingly honest, told in Steiner's inimitable style, Surviving to Drive is a fascinating and hugely entertaining account of the realities of running a Formula 1 team.

Échantillon de lecture
OFF SEASON

Monday, 13 December 2021—Yas Marina Circuit, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi

It probably won’t surprise many people that I am starting my book with a swear word but all I can say is, thank fok that season is over! It’s been a nightmare from start to finish. I don’t drink very much but this year I’ve been tempted to take it up professionally. Whisky on a foking drip. That’s what I needed sometimes!

It hasn’t just been this year, though. The shit goes back even further than that. Being kicked out of Melbourne at the start of 2020 was probably where it all began. We thought we’d be racing again in a couple of weeks’ time but what was actually ahead of us all was months and months of uncertainty. Will we survive? Will we even race again? Nobody knew, you know. It’s no secret that there were probably four teams that could easily have gone under during that time, including us. Pete Crolla, our team manager, had meetings with the FIA and Formula 1 two or three times a week, and while he fed everything back to Gene Haas and me, we tried to keep everything afloat. Even the sport itself was under threat for a time because we didn’t know how long the pandemic would last. Would it be three months? Would it be three years? Would it be three generations?

In the end Formula 1 basically shut down for about ninety days. That’s incredible, when you think about it. Especially for a sport that is famous for progression. The only time this sport ever comes close to shutting down is during the summer break and over Christmas. But even then there is a lot ticking along in the background. Me, for instance. You think that I shut down in the summer and over Christmas? Don’t be ridiculous. I have things to do. That ninety days, though, was a pretty shit time.

The thing that Formula 1 as a whole did right during those ninety days was to carry on as if things would eventually get better, at least as much as it was possible. This meant that when we could come up for air and start racing again we’d be ready to go. A lot of people worked hard to make th…