Steiner answers GPU reader questions

14 July 2016 – Earlier this month, GPUpdate.net gave readers the opportunity to pose questions to Haas team boss Guenther Steiner. We put a selection of them to him during the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone.

Lode Beuten, Facebook: What do you have to do to start up a Formula 1 team?

A lot of work! (laughs) From where you want to start, to set it up… I think the first thing you have to find are people who you can trust and you know have got experience, otherwise you cannot get it done. That is what I did. While Mr. [Gene] Haas was still deciding if he was going to do it [Formula 1] or not, I started getting in contact with people, to see actually who is out there, and who is available on the market to help out, because you cannot do it on your own. You get a few key people in place and grow it from there – that is your first step. After that, you just work your way down, you know, you get more people, equipment ordered and suppliers sorted, until you get it done. You have to have people around you, you can never do it on your own.

@BladeThundrbolt, Twitter: What has been the most challenging aspect?
I think there are so many things. A lot of people ask, but there is not one thing which, if we get right, everything will be fine. The most challenging is to get everywhere to a good level, in all your decisions; technical decisions, driver decisions… It's a combination of things. You cannot drop the ball in any of these areas, that is the most important, then you will be OK. But there is not one thing where you think, for example, 'If I know the tyre pressure, I will be winning', that would be too easy. There are a lot of elements. You just need to be everywhere above average to be successful.

Wilco and Patricia de Heus: What goes well within the team at the moment and which areas would you like to see improvements in?

I would like to see improvements in all the areas, because that's what takes you forward. I think in general we are everywhere OK. We have got areas where we are better. It changes by the event. Like in race engineering, they make a step to understand the tyre better, so the demand goes on for aero to keep up with their development, and then the design office needs to come in place to design that stuff, to come up to the spec, and then for the design office, you need manufacturing to come up to make it better, so it's a moving target. There is never one thing, if we make it better, that we are a lot better. I think Formula 1 is complicated because you have got so many different elements you need to look after. You have got to look after HR [Human Resources], because you need the best people – you cannot be happy with people who are underperforming or are average. You always try to get better people and motivate them. That is the most difficult one.

@SparshSharmaF1, Twitter: You've said that Haas is already focusing on 2017. What are your primary targets with that car?
Better than with this one! You always try to do that, to build on… It seems this year we are at the back end of the midfield, and next year the aim is to be at the front end of the midfield. You need to give yourself targets. We always gave ourselves targets to be in the midfield, and we have achieved this, as we are not with the back of the field. We just need to make steps up there and get in the points consistently.

@VaxM3rstapp3n, Twitter: What do you make of the 2017 regulations?

I think the cars will look pretty cool, and that's the main aim. I think the cars will be pretty quick. It's difficult to say that, because there were not any tyre tests, and if the tyres are good, or as good as these ones, it will be quick, but if the tyres are not as good, it will be slow, because in the end the tyres decide performance. The aim was to make the cars quicker, sexier and cooler looking. They will achieve the cooler looking.

Yorrin Kootstra, Facebook: Haas is using a lot of Ferrari components. Is it possible to compete with a team such as them in the future?
First of all, how far away in the future? In the near future, no, because there are so many elements involved in racing, so I don't think we can. But the wish is for sure, to compete with them. How difficult will it be? I don't know. But at the moment we still have a lot of building work to do to even get close to them. If we get close, that's fine.

GPU: Could you go your own way in the future?
Yeah, it's always an option. Formula 1 is a business which is changing very quickly. I don't know what is happening in three years, you know, with the regulations.

Alwin Heeren, Facebook: Why do team bosses watch the race start on the televisions in the garage, not on the pit wall?

We are actually not allowed on the pit wall. There are a maximum of two people allowed on the pit wall at the start. We have the team manager and the chief race engineer or the strategist, normally the strategist because they need to start to input data. It's just a regulation, because if there is an accident it's riskier up there [on the pit wall], than standing back there [in the garage].

@mperalta112, Twitter: Have any of the Stewart-Haas NASCAR guys expressed an interest in switching to the Formula 1 team?
Oh, yeah, they are asking. This is one of them! (Pointing to communications chief Mike Arning). Mike has got the advantage, as he doesn't have to come to all the events. I think the difficult bit for an American is to be away, because you cannot just go racing with the team, you need to go and live in England, and make a living out of England. The guys in NASCAR are pretty comfortable there, I would say. It's not a bad life, once you've made it into a big team like Stewart-Haas. So why would you take the risk to come to Europe and travel around the world if you've got a good, safe job going? For sure, people are interested. We have got a few of them. We have got one guy who left Stewart-Haas and is working here in the engineering staff, as a reliability engineer, but he's the only travelling one. There are others ones who went to the CFD group. There is interest.

@irvine1971, Twitter: What's the personal best moment from your career so far?

It's difficult, because there are so many different good moments, you know. I think what we are allowed to do is pretty amazing. It's amazing what I can do. I can do what I like to do. We can travel, we can compete and go racing. For me, when we go racing on a Sunday, it's every time like, 'This is what I want to do!', and then it all goes s**t and you think, 'Why the hell do I do this?' But you have a little bit of success and there are great moments. There's not one specific one. In Australia finishing sixth in the points in our first race, or when I was with Ford, winning special stages in Monte-Carlo with Colin McRae when everybody told us we would never make it. Same here, people said we would never make it, but we went out there and did it. These are great moments in life. Winning a Safari Rally with Colin McRae, beating all the big Japanese – they looked at us as a bunch of clowns, which beat them. But we put more effort in. It's a little bit like here and I love that.