Have the German media forgiven him for casting Schumacher aside – especially as he is the son of a legendary world champion? “I don’t need to be forgiven. I don’t feel guilty. I gave somebody a good chance so why should I feel I did wrong?” Steiner intersperses some of the more humdrum days at grands prix with tales from his rallying years—his experience of a Dakar Rally disaster is extraordinary—his bafflement at the fame that his Haas role and DTS popularity has brought, as well as how he balances family life with 10 months of the year on the road. Steiner could probably write another book alone with just stories from his disastrous time at Jaguar alongside the late Niki Lauda, who emerges as one of Steiner’s biggest inspirations. 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...' Surviving to Drive” serves as Steiner’s diary of the 2022 season, during which Haas went through a turbulent pre-season, cutting ties with title sponsor Uralkali and driver Nikita Mazepin in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Than of course Mazepin and Uralkali had to go with the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Steiner swears only once in this interview and he is thoughtful, and so I wonder if he also gets weary of his comic persona. 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. “And there’s no need to remind people all the time what I actually did. The most important thing is Mr Haas still thinks I do the right job. I think I do a decent job and I know my priority is to run the team.” At last weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix Hülkenberg qualified on the front row of the grid alongside Verstappen. It was a significant breakthrough and Haas’s best-ever qualification, but Steiner’s elation turned to disappointment when Hülkenberg was then hit with a three-place grid penalty. Steiner emerges as not just Haas’ team principal but its public face, a motivator to its personnel, and effectively one of its co-founders given how he lobbied Gene Haas in the early 2010s to enter Formula 1. Their early encounters are relayed, including how Steiner was awoken at 2 a.m. to give a 90-minute presentation to then F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone about why Haas should be allowed into the sport. Steiner lives all of Haas’ highs and lows, and is desperate to see the team succeed. “It’s the last thing I think about before going to sleep and the first when I wake: (His wife) Gertie, (daughter) Greta, and two hundred employees scattered over the world,” he writes. Surviving to Drive—a not-so-subtle linguistic twist on Drive to Survive—is the most anticipated Formula 1 book in some time.

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Wolff and Christian Horner, his counterpart at Red Bull, have also become Netflix stars while sniping at each other. Do Wolff and Horner ever thank Steiner for easing the burden of attention on them? “They will never thank you for anything,” he says with a grin. “In here we don’t say thank you to each other. No thanks is already a compliment. At least you don’t get a complaint.”

Guenther Steiner has been the unlikely breakout star of the show and this book aims to cement his celebrity via a diary-style romp through the 2022 season. This was SUCH an easy read. Even if you’re not heavily in to Formula 1, I still think this would be an interesting insight into how it all works and understand the struggles and challenges they face. Especially since it’s all told from the mind and eyes of Guenther Steiner. He is absolutely hilarious and just seems so genuine. But Steiner was on the right side of history and clearly grasped the issues surrounding his Russian driver Nikita Mazepin and his team’s title sponsor Uralkali immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Describing the decision to drop the main sponsor he says: “There was no debate. It had to happen for the good of Haas and the good of the sport.” Later he adds wryly: “Only Haas could have a Russian driver and a Russian sponsor at the start of a Russian war.” Hülkenberg replaced Schumacher but the older German driver, who is now 35, has had a fractious relationship with Magnusson. Does Steiner enjoy seeing some needle between his drivers? “At the moment they get on pretty good but I always say teammates shouldn’t be friends because then the competition is going away. They need to compete to get the best out of the car for the team.Haas is het nieuwste F1 team en met hun kleinere budget worden ze vaak gezien als de underdog. Maar wie houdt er nou niet van een underdog? Na Surviving to drive ga je nog meer rooten voor het team van Haas – ik vond het al leuk als ze een goede race reden, maar nu helemaal. Vooral de passage waarin Steiner vertelt over de eerste pole van het team – door Kevin Magnussen in Brazilië. Ondanks dat het ook een deel geluk was, is het ook vele jaren van hard werk geweest. Dit begrijp je beter na het lezen van Steiners visie, en ik kreeg nogmaals zin om te juichen voor deze prestatie.