In the wake of his abrupt departure from Haas F1, former team principal Guenther Steiner has revealed that he has dived back into the world of motorsport literature with a second book about his life and times in Formula 1.
Steiner’s previous work, ‘Surviving to Drive’, chronicled Haas’ tumultuous 2022 season and provided an insider’s look at the Italian’s colorful personality and management style, leveraged to perfection by the producers of the popular Netflix docu-series ‘Drive to Survive’.
The book, written in collaboration with ghostwriter James Hoff who had worked on previous projects with Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert, was an undeniable commercial success, selling over 150,000 copies and being translated into twelve languages.
Steiner and Hogg had already initiated their second volume when Haas announced the former’s exit from the team earlier this month, so recent events will only enrich the works’ content.
The upcoming book will inevitably delve into the aftermath of Steiner’s dismissal from Haas, providing an unfiltered account of his experiences and reflections on the highs and lows of his Formula 1 career.
It could also shed light on the team’s recent struggles and the direction it may take under new leadership.
Steiner’s penchant for candidness and his ability to capture the essence of Formula 1’s behind-the-scenes drama make him a fascinating subject for a book.
Therefore, his second literary endeavor promises to be a captivating read for fans of motorsport and anyone seeking an insider’s perspective on the fast-paced world of Formula 1.
©Haas
“We are working on the second book at the moment,” Steiner told Motorsport.com. “That was planned already before. Now, obviously, the story maybe changes a little bit!
“It was a completely new experience,” he added. “And I learned a lot about how some industries work, how things are done because I was never exposed to this before.
“And I actually enjoyed working with the writer, he is a cool dude, we had good fun. And he had good fun as well. He said hanging out with me was always good fun because it was never the pressure of ‘we need to do this’. It all came very organically.”
It had been suggested that Steiner’s star-status in F1 bestowed upon him by his appearances in ‘Drive to Survive’, as well as his involvement in his book project had perhaps distracted him from his responsibilities at Haas.
But the 58-year-old denied that his dealings beyond F1 had been detrimental to the US outfit.
“I think people are overrating that, how much distraction that is,” he said. “Because it isn’t actually a lot of distraction from the daily job.
“Obviously on the race weekends, you need to work more. But for example, I didn’t have 20 [sponsor] appearances a weekend, I had maybe three maximum.
“It’s not like that is distracting, even writing the book. Obviously, a ghostwriter does it for you.
“Now I’ve got more time, but even now, we do two sessions a week of half an hour. We do one on Tuesday and one on Friday. That’s all I do, he does the rest.
“You speak with him, but it’s not like I spent days speaking with him. I know that some people have spent days speaking with these people, but I didn’t.
“I don’t think that is a big factor. I think that there were more benefits for the team than anything else about this because they got a lot of sponsors.”
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Steiner’s encore: Former Haas team boss working on second book F1i.com.
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