How Tim Mayer, as chairman of the FIA sports stewards in Formula 1, experienced Haas team boss Günther Steiner during his hearings.
Haas team boss Günther Steiner has been known far beyond the Formula 1 paddock since the Netflix series “Drive to Survive”. But among the sports commissioners of the World Automobile Association (FIA), Steiner is one thing above all else: notorious.
In the Formula 1 podcast “F1 Nation”, Tim Mayer, chairman of the FIA sports stewards, describes Steiner in clear terms and, above all, attests to his “temperament”.
“I can tell you: you don’t want to argue with him at the hearing before the sports commissioners,” says Mayer.
FIA: What Günther Steiner was annoyed about in Monaco
He himself got the “full program” from Steiner at this year’s Monaco Grand Prix. How does this manifest itself? According to Mayer, Steiner gets abusive, “but I don’t get angry when he swears in my face and calls me all sorts of things,” said the sports commissioner.
In these moments he simply remembers that the “passion” comes from Steiner because he is passionate about motorsport.
In the specific case in Monaco, the sports stewards had given Haas driver Nico Hülkenberg a five-second time penalty for a first-lap collision, which was followed by another time penalty because the first one had not been “served” correctly.
Back then, Steiner described the first time penalty as an “inconsistency on the part of the FIA” and said “that seems to be normal now”.
FIA Commissioner: Günther Steiner also has another side
With this attitude he probably went to the hearing with the sports commissioners with Mayer, where the scene described is said to have occurred.
But Steiner also has another side, emphasizes Mayer. Just a few days ago at the USA Grand Prix in Austin, the Haas team boss visited the sports hall “of his own free will”.
“He spent almost an hour with them and was really wonderful, signing autographs and cracking jokes. He was absolutely fantastic,” says Mayer.
Addendum: “The marshals are volunteers who work hard. It’s really great of him to visit them. That makes a big difference.”