‘Don’t blame me’: Guenther Steiner on Formula 1’s swearing ban and being a Netflix sex symbol

Guenther Steiner has never watched the show that made him famous.

“I never watched Drive to Survive,” he says. “No, no, I do not watch it.”

Despite being surrounded by Formula 1 superstars such as Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, Steiner somehow became the Netflix hit’s biggest star – a 59-year-old Italian who lost a lot, swore often and was eventually dumped from his job as Haas team principal.

Former Haas team principal and Netflix star Guenther Steiner is in Melbourne to commentate for the Australian Grand Prix. Credit: Luis Enrique

“It is a little bit strange, especially in the beginning,” Steiner says. “I needed to get used to it because I wasn’t used to people recognising you at the beginning. The biggest thing is people start to know your name and call you by name, and you don’t know [them]. But after a while you learn that not everybody [who] knows your name knows you. It takes a bit of time to adjust to that one.”

So he doesn’t consider himself a sex symbol? “No, no, no,” he says, laughing.

Steiner is in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix, where he’s commentating for Network Ten. He has also been touring a live showbased on his best-selling book Unfiltered. It’s been a whirlwind. Before season one of the Netflix documentary, in 2019, Steiner was just another dude in a sport traditionally loved by dudes.

Drive to Survive changed that. Suddenly, the team principals became household names.

“I don’t know, maybe I’ve got a story to tell,” Steiner says, when asked about his popularity. Even at his book signings, it was reported that he had longer lines than many of the younger drivers. “But they are young, maybe they have nothing to tell. Not yet, anyway. Maybe some day.”

The reality show has also driven more women to the sport. In 2023, it was reported that female attendance at the Australian Grand Prix had grown by more than half.

Guenther Steiner greets his fans in a scene from the Netflix reality show Drive to Survive. Credit:

“It has changed a lot,” he says. “You can see it in the demographics these days. I mean, before it was middle-aged men, 90 per cent of it, at least – which is nothing wrong to be a middle-aged man, I am one of them and I’m already going to the other side, to the older people – but now you see a lot of young people and females as well. Drive to Survive for sure helped, but also the social media marketing helped a lot as well.”

What also made Steiner popular was his ability to put the “f” in Formula 1. He is forthright (“I try my best, but I cannot make a shit car into a good car”) and doesn’t hold back (“He’s going so f---ing slow, he doesn’t need a brake”).

But under new rules to be implemented in Melbourne, drivers and team principals can now be fined for swearing.

“Don’t blame me for it, I didn’t teach these kids what to do, what to say, you know, they just know,” he says. “I think it was taken out of context, you know, taken a little bit – how you say? – making a mountain out of a molehill. I think a sport lives from emotions. Who wants to watch a sport without emotions? Even video games have emotions these days.

“So if somebody at some stage swears, is it good? I’m not saying it’s very good, but is it bad? Not as bad as it is made out and [not so bad that teams can be] fined tens of thousands of dollars. This could have been resolved a lot more practically by sitting the drivers down and telling them, ‘Guys, tone it down a notch, don’t go over the top, and nobody will speak about it’. Now we all speak about [it] and the children, which didn’t know the f-word, they now know it.”

As for this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, how does Steiner fancy local hope Oscar Piastri, the 23-year-old who races for McLaren.

“A good chance,” he says. “People say, ‘You have to take a decision’, I say it’s 50/50. I think the McLaren, following the testing in Bahrain 10 days ago, looks to be the strongest car. And I think Lando [Norris] and Oscar are very equal drivers, equal good drivers. So it’s very difficult to say who’s going to win, who’s going to be better on the day. I don’t know. But I think that, for me, the two favourites are them two.”

As for where Steiner gets his need for speed these days, it’s pretty sedate. “I drive a pick-up truck,” he says. “I live in the States, in North Carolina. I don’t want to go to jail; I follow the rules.”

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